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THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING
AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUT

W1NFIELD H.COLLINS

loo

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THE TRUTH ABOUT
LYNCHING and THE
NEGRO IN THE SOUTH

IN WHICH THE AUTHOR PLEADS THAT THE
SOUTH BE MADE SAFE FOR THE WHITE RACE

WINFIELD H. COLLINS, A.M., PH.D.

AUTHOR OF
The Domestic Slave Trade of the Southern States

THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY

440 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
MCMXVIII

942436

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE ..........

CHAPTER

I THE LYNCHING OF NEGROES IN THE SOUTH PRE-
VIOUS TO THE CIVIL WAR 9

II LYNCHING DURING THE CIVIL WAR AND THE CAR-
PET-BAG RULE 29

III LYNCHING FROM THE END OF CARPET-BAG RULE TO

THE PRESENT TIME 48

IV THE CRIMINALITY OF THE NEGRO .... 72
V SEGREGATION OF THE NEGRO . . . . . 101

VI NEGRO WEALTH OR POVERTY, — WHICH? . . 123
VII THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO 141

PREFACE

IN the preparation of these pages an effort has
been made to discover and present the truth in re-
gard to the Negro in the South. The first three
chapters need not be considered an attempt at justi-
fication of lynching nor an effort at palliation of the
disorder, but rather as a setting forth of the facts,
conditions, and extenuating circumstances in such
connection. The purpose of the other four chap-
ters is to throw light upon the mental, moral, and
material condition of the Negro.

W. H. C.

REIDS GROVE, MD.,
January 30, 1918.

The Truth About Lynching
and the Negro in the South

CHAPTER I

THE LYNCHING OF NEGROES IN THE SOUTH PREVI-
OUS TO THE CIVIL WAR

IT is generally supposed that the custom or
practice of lynching in this country had its origin
in the method of punishment used by a Virginian
farmer named Lynch, who during the Revolution-
ary War sought in this way to maintain order in
his community or section, — hence, Lynch's Law,
and Lynch law, from which comes the word
"lynching."

In the beginning, however, the term seldom, if
ever, conveyed the meaning "to put to death";
nor does it appear that Negroes were lynched even
so often as whites. The methods of punishment in
the majority of cases consisted of riding the victim
on a rail, beating or whipping him, and often of
giving him a coat of tar and feathers.

Moreover, it does not appear that lynching in
9

io THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

any form was very common in the early history
of the country. Indeed, in 1839 a writer in the
Southern Literary Messenger l began a brief arti-
cle on the subject with the following:

"Forty years ago the practice of wreaking pri-
vate vengeance or of inflicting summary or illegal
punishment for crime actual or pretended which
has been glossed over by the name Lynch law
was hardly known except in sparse, frontier set-
tlements beyond the reach of courts and legal pro-
ceedings."

Newspapers, periodicals, and other literature of
the time show, — as the years pass, — an interest-
ing change in the meaning of the term Lynch law.
As the practice of lynching increased, the methods
of the executors of this law became more severe,
and it grew more often to mean "a putting to
death." Possibly the change in meaning was part-
ly due to the fact that lynching came to be a favo-
rite means of punishment for abolitionists, their
Negro dupes, and for both Negroes and whites
who might be found guilty of unusual or shock-
ing crimes.

The change from the mild to the severer mean-
ing of the term was gradual. From 1830 to 1840

'Vol. V, p. 218.

it seldom meant "to put to death"; from 1850 to
1 860 it very often had that meaning, and by 1 870,
or 1875, — this became the almost exclusive inter-
pretation of "lynching," even as at present.

The "New English Dictionary" defines Lynch
law as "the practice of inflicting summary punish-
ment upon an offender, by a self-constituted court
armed with no legal authority; it is now limited
to the summary execution of one charged with
some flagrant offense." So this is about the sense
(unless otherwise indicated) in which I shall use
the expression "Lynch law," or "lynching," in
these pages.

In seeking a cause for the great increase of
lynching, whether in its milder or severer form,
from about 1830, I think one need not hesitate to
give first place to the Anti-Slavery agitation; and
the Southampton Slave Insurrection is also to be
considered as contributory.

When, about 1830, the Anti-Slavery agitation
began to attract some attention there were a num-
ber of anti-slavery societies in the South. These,
however, soon broke up as those formed in the
North became unreasonable. The net effect of the
societies in the North was to produce distrust
and even hatred at the South. It could hardly
have been otherwise, for the Northern anti-slavery
propagandists during the whole period of such

12 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

agitation seemed to have regard for neither law
nor common sense. Nothing better could have
been expected from them, however, as, for the
most part, the abolitionists were poor, misguided
men and women. Instead of adopting persuasive
methods and of showing a fair and conciliatory
spirit, they were dictatorial, inflammatory and
menacing. And by whatever of higher law or
Divine inspiration they may have claimed to be
actuated, they failed to recognize the fact that
they had to deal with human beings and human
institutions.

Again, on whatever lofty plane of morality they
professed to stand, their propaganda did not com-
prehend even ordinary honesty. Indeed, it ap-
pears as only another illustration, — for history af-
fords so many instances, — of self-elected good
men endeavoring to impose their own half-blind
perception of the way of the Lord, or their own
ideas of what constitutes righteousness on their
open-eyed and superior fellow-men, and exerting
themselves to the utmost of their ignorance in
such efforts, — thus, as is usual in such cases, mak-
ing hell on earth. Even the Kaiser claims to be
the agent of the Lord.

William Lloyd Garrison, the leading exponent
of the abolition movement, called the Constitu-
tion of the United States "An Agreement with

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 13

Death and a Covenant with Hell." In the begin-
ning his most earnest supporters were some pious
old women, who doubtless with fair intelligence
and good intentions, like many professed good
people, let their emotions aided by their imagina-
tion get the better of their heads. They seemed
to enjoy criticizing the South, with the occasional
diversion of holding prayer-meetings for Negroes.

However, it was a long while (even in the
North) before the abolition movement gained
much headway. Garrison himself was treated with
scarcely more consideration in the North than
awaited those Apostles of anti-slavery that should
go South, having persuaded themselves that they
were called to preach the "gospel" of abolition in
that benighted section. Indeed, once, in 1835, he
hid himself in order to escape from a mob of
some thousands of people, — including many of the
leading citizens of Boston, — that had collected in
front of his office. Some of the crowd found him
and soon had a rope around his neck, but he was
rescued by the mayor of the city. About two years
later, however, a noted abolition editor, Rev.
E. P. Lovejoy, was killed by a mob in Illinois.

In 1856 The Liberator made the following re-
markable statement in regard to the treatment of
abolitionists in the South :

14 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

"A record of the cases of Lynch-Law in the
Southern States reveals the startling fact that with-
in twenty years over three hundred white persons
have been murdered upon the occasion — in most
cases unsupported by legal proof — of carrying
among the slaveholders arguments addressed to
their own intellects and consciences as to the mo-
rality and expediency of slavery."2

This is evidently a great exaggeration. If it
were alleged that over three hundred had been
"lynched," bearing in mind that during those years
the word, more often than otherwise, meant giv-
ing the victim a coat of tar and feathers, and so on,
it would not even then be in accord with what is
indicated by better evidence. Books of travel and
other literature of the time fail to show that any
great number of abolitionists in the South me^t
death by lynching during the period in question.

Indeed, a booklet, "The New Reign of Terror,"
published early in 1860, — and in all probability
compiled by Garrison himself, — is weighty evi-
dence against the truth of this statement. Ac-
cording to The Liberator, the booklet gave "multi-
plied newspaper accounts of lynchings, murders,
and mob raids of the Black Power of the Slave
States within the past year [1859]." Although

1 The Liberator, Dec. 19, 1856.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 15

this was a time of intense excitement throughout
the South, — a time when a more bitter feeling was
manifested against abolitionists than in any previ-
ous period, a careful examination of the "New
Reign of Terror" failed to reveal more than one
case in which an abolitionist was put to death by
lynching.

There is much evidence of a law-abiding spirit
in the South (especially in the eastern part) at the
beginning of the Anti-Slavery agitation. Indeed,
even when lynching was resorted to, it seems to
have been done with great reluctance.

Another thing that had some effect on lynching
was the Southampton Slave Insurrection, which oc-
curred in 1831. About sixty white men, women,
and children were murdered in cold blood by Ne-
groes. However, not more than one of the fifty
or more Negroes concerned in it was lynched. In-
stead, they were given a fair trial, and disposed
of according to law. The Insurrection may have
caused an increase in the lynching of Negroes by
the fact that it begat a kind of fear and distrust
of the blacks everywhere, caused them to be more
carefully looked after, and more severely dealt
with when refractory or guilty of crime.

This was no more than could be expected. In
1835 there were four great fires in the city of
Charleston, — all supposed to have been the work

16 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

of slaves. Moreover, up to 1860 there were ru-
mors of insurrections, and many minor insurrec-
tions did take place. The abolitionists, not with-
out reason, were accused of trying to set the slaves
against their masters and of fostering outbreaks
of the bondmen.

Such things could hardly be considered lightly,
for in many places the whites were practically at
the mercy of the Negroes. A quotation from Mur-
ray,3 an English traveler, may be interesting as it
gives an example of the situation in many of the
Slave States:

"The farms of the two gentlemen whom I visit-
ed occupied the whole of the peninsula formed by
the James River; they had each two overseers:
thus (their families being young) the effective
strength of white men on their estates amounted
to six: the Negroes were in number about two
hundred and fifty: nor was there a village or place
within many miles from which help could be sum-
moned."

Could one reasonably expect that any man so
situated would be inclined to be too ceremonious
with any person, black or white, however innocent
or saintlike his looks, who might be caught tam-
pering with the Negroes and thereby jeopardize

"Murray, "Travels in North America," Vol. I, p. 166.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 17

the safety of his family and those of his neighbors
as well? When one considers the exasperating
circumstances, the wonder is not that there were
so many lynchings but rather that there were so
few, comparatively.

Some interesting lynchings occurred in 1835.
They were widely commented upon at the time.
One, the case of a mulatto from Pennsylvania,
who was supposed to have some connection with
the abolitionists, was burned at St. Louis for kill-
ing an officer who was trying to arrest him for
some crime he had committed. The judge's charge
to the grand jury in reference to the matter is
worth consideration as it indicates the attitude to-
ward lynching shown at the time by those in au-
thority :

"He told the jury that a bad and lamentable
deed had been committed in burning a man alive
without trial, but that it was quite another ques-
tion whether they were to take any notice of it.
If it should prove to be the act of a few, every
one of those few ought undoubtedly to be indicted
and punished; but if it should be proved to be
the act of the many, incited by that electric and
metaphysical influence which occasionally carries
on a multitude to do deeds above and beyond the

1 8 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

law, it was no affair for the jury to interfere
with."*

The same year, 1835, two Negroes were burned
near Mobile.5 The circumstances were these:

Upon the failure of a certain little girl and her
brother to return from school at the proper time
a search was made and the body of the girl at last
found. It appeared that she had been violated,
then murdered, and her body hid in order to con-
ceal the crime. Soon after this, two young ladies
of Mobile were seized by two Negroes near the
place where the body of the little girl was found.
The young ladies escaped. At once suspicion
pointed to these Negroes as the murderers of the
children. They were arrested, tried by the court,
and found guilty. The gentlemen of Mobile, it
is said, then seized the Negroes, took them to the
place of their crime, and burned them. For it
was felt that the law did not furnish adequate
means of punishment for such fiendish criminality.

Another noted instance of lynching took place
at Vicksburg in the same year. This time it was
not a Negro but whites that were lynched.

For many years the population of the Missis-
sippi Valley had been increasing rapidly. The
courts of law were so few, weak, or dilatory, that

4 Harriett Martineau, "Retrospect of Western Travel," pp. 30-1.
e Ibid., "Society in America," Vol. II, pp. 141-2.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 19

the better citizens sometimes found it necessary to
take the law into their own hands in order to insure
for themselves protection. Such was the case at
Vicksburg. Some gamblers had lately made this
town their home and had established themselves at
the low taverns to which they decoyed the young
men of the vicinity. These, after being plundered
and debauched, often cast their lot with the gam-
blers and became almost as desperate as their cor-
rupters. After a while all restraint was thrown
off, and the gamblers went about the streets even
in the daytime armed with deadly weapons, and
by their insults, drunkenness, and crimes, made
themselves a terror to the inhabitants.

At length the people, having decided to put an
end to such conditions, held a meeting and passed
resolutions, giving the gamblers notice to leave
within twenty-four hours. But, instead of doing
so, they garrisoned themselves in a house. This
the men of the town surrounded, and breaking
open a door, they were fired upon from within,
one of the most prominent men of the town being
killed. This so enraged the people that they took
the house by storm. Five of the gamblers were
made prisoners. Then a procession, headed by
the leading men of the town, led the gamblers to
execution, hung them, and buried them together in
a ditch.

Featherstonhaugh, an English traveler, in writ-
ing of the Mississippi gamblers, says:

"In various travels in almost every part of the
world, I never saw such a collection of unblushing,
low, degraded scoundrels."6

He also quotes a passage from a justification
of the above lynching, which was drawn up by
the people of Vicksburg, and is as follows:

"Society may be compared to the elements,
which, although, 'order is their first law,' can some-
times be justified only by a storm. Whatever,
therefore, sickly sensibility or mawkish philan-
thropy may say against the course pursued by us,
we hope that our citizens will not relax the code of
punishment which they have enacted against this
infamous, unprincipled, and baleful class of so-
ciety; and we invite Natchez, Jackson, Columbus,
Warrenton, and all our sister towns throughout
the State, in the name of our insulted laws, of of-
fended virtue, and of slaughtered innocence, to aid
us in exterminating this deep-rooted vice from our
land. The revolution has been conducted here by
the most respectable citizens, heads of families,
members of all classes and professions and pur-

"G. W. Featherstonhaugh, "Excursion through the Slave
States," pp. 136-9.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 21

suits. None have been heard to utter a syllable
of censure against either the act or the manner in
which it was performed; and so far as we know,
public opinion, both in town and country, is de-
cidedly in favor of the course pursued. We have
never known the public so unanimous on any sub-
ject."

Only a few days before the Vicksburg affair
two white men and seven Negroes were lynched
about forty miles from Vicksburg on the charge
of attempting to organize an insurrection of
slaves. Featherstonhaugh quotes the following
account of it from a newspaper:

"Twenty miles from this place [Jackson, in
Madison County] a company of white men and
Negroes were detected before they did any mis-
chief. On Sunday last they hung two steam doc-
tors, one named Cotton and the other Saunders;
also, seven Negroes without law or gospel, and
from respectable authority we learn that there
were two preachers and ten Negroes to be hanged
this day."

That such lynchings were exceptional in the
South before about 1855, or even before the war,
is shown by the fact that these cases were men-

22 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

tioned by several different travelers and the papers
of the time as well. I examined with more or less
care books of travel too numerous to mention, —
scores of them, — for the period between 1830 and
1860. Those travelers, especially, who visited the
South between 1838 and 1854 are eloquently si-
lent on the subject. I examined The Liberator1
for 1839 and 1840, but found mention of only one
Negro who was put to death by a mob. No State
was given so I am not sure whether it was in the
North or the South. However, it gave five in-
stances of Negroes legally executed in the South;
one for rape, one for arson, one for firing on two
white men and threatening two others, and two
for connection with an attempt at insurrection.
Two more cases may be given : that of a Negro in
New Orleans suspected of rape and murder, and
one sentenced in Kentucky for rape upon two
white women.

Again, a search of The Liberator for 1 848 and
1849; Niles' Register, July, i845-January,
1849; The Ficksburg Sentinel, and The Augusta
(Va.) Democrat, July, i846-January, 1849, re~
veal out two lynchings: One a Negro "hung by
a committee of citizens" at Bentonville, Arkansas;

7 In using The Liberator one needs to be careful, for the same
instance is often found to be given two or three different times,
— weeks, even months apart.

AND THE NEGR.O IN THE SOUTH 23

the other, a white man named Yeoman, in Florida,
for robbery. The latter was given both by Niles'
Register and a book of travel. However, one Ne-
gro was sentenced to death in the South for rape,
and ten legally executed, the majority for mur-
der.

As one might naturally expect, The Liberator
for 1855 and 1856 shows several lynchings in the
South. At least six Negroes were lynched in the
South during these years, — two for rape (one of
whom was burned) and four for murder (one of
whom also was burned). Two of these criminals
were lynched in Arkansas by a mob, — after being
acquitted by the court, — led by the sons of their
master, whom they had killed. Two white men
were also lynched : one, in Texas, for stealing Ne-
groes, and the other, in Missouri, for poisoning
a spring. Moreover, eighteen Negroes were
legally executed in the South: two for rape, and
nearly all the others for murder. In addition,
seven Negroes were mentioned as under sentence
of death.

A quotation from Bancroft clearly shows that
the number of lynchings in the South at this time
hardly compares with the number in the West:

"Out of 535 homicides which occurred in Cali-
fornia during the year 1855," he says, "there were

24 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

but seven legal executions and forty-nine informal
ones."8

One does not need to go far in order to find the
causes of the increase of lynching in the South
after 1850, or for the disorder and commotion
both North and South as well.

In 1850 the Fugitive Slave law was passed. The
endeavor to enforce it gave great impetus to the
abolition cause in the North; this reacted on
the South. Indeed, many of the same men who
were ready to hang Garrison in 1835, now became
his earnest adherents. This great change in the
feeling of the North opened the way for the en-
thusiastic reception of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
when, in 1852, it was published in book form. The
author of this book ingeniously made the isolated
and exceptional incidents of slavery appear as the
general condition of the institution; however, as
for the chief character of the book, Uncle Tom,
it is very doubtful whether the pure Negro race
ever produced such an individual. Nevertheless,
this piece of fiction was read by hundreds of thou-
sands both in the North and in foreign countries
as if it were "Gospel truth."

Another thing that added to the excitement and
helped the abolitionists was the Dred Scott Decis-

8 H. H. Bancroft, "Popular Tribunals," Vol. I, p. 749.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 25

ion, given in 1857. Then, in 1859, came "Help-
ers' Impending Crisis," a book of great influence.
At last, in 1859, as if to "cap the climax," the
whole country was startled by John Brown's Raid.
After this, the greater part of the South, suddenly,
became an extremely unhealthful place for both
abolitionists and unruly, criminal, or insurrection-
ary Negroes.

"The New Reign of Terror," mentioned above,
published early in 1860, not many months after
John Brown's Raid, has the following, which indi-
cates the then feeling in the South:

"In almost every city, town, and village south
of the border slave-holding States, Vigilance Com-
mittees have been appointed to put to inquisition
every Northern man who makes his appearance
in the place, whether as foe or friend. Even
harmless young women, who have gone from
Northern boarding schools to be teachers of
Southern children have been waited upon by re-
spectable and even clerical gentlemen with the
polite hint that the sooner they leave the State
the better for their safety."

The Augusta Dispatch9 warned the South
against "strange loafing white men, and especially

"Quoted by Liberator, Aug. 24, 1860.

26 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

the one-horse invalid preachers from the North,"
for it said:

"We would guard well against imposition from
transient 'candles of the Lord' lest we suffer them
to light the fires of insurrection, instead of bearing
aloft the light of the Gospel."

Indeed, in many Southern States there were
rumors of Negro insurrections. In Mississippi,
Georgia, and Alabama plots of Negro insurrec-
tions were discovered in 1860. In Texas, how-
ever, the greatest excitement prevailed. What
was supposed to be a State-wide insurrection was
discovered. Dallas and other towns were partly
burned before it was checked.

The excited state of the public mind in some in-
stances may have suspected plots of insurrection
when none existed. However that may be,
wherever and whenever such a plot was dis-
covered, investigation nearly always pointed to the
abolitionists as the instigators. Indeed, even when
Negroes were insubordinate and refractory on a
plantation, it was often found that they had been
tampered with by abolitionists.

Occasionally, when such things were proved
against an abolitionist beyond the possibility of a
doubt, he would be immediately hanged to the

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 27

limb of some convenient tree. Several were so
dealt with in connection with the insurrection in
Texas. As a rule, however, when the proof was
not so conclusive, a severe whipping, or a coat of
tar and feathers, would be given him, and then
he would be forcefully admonished to leave the
South.

One cannot but reach the conclusion that the
anti-slavery agitation was detrimental to the hap-
piness and welfare of the slaves, and to the free
Negroes as well. Of the latter there were in the
slave States (by the fifties) something like 225,-
ooo. The majority of these were indolent, miser-
able, and often vi,cious. Finally some States passed
laws giving them the option of leaving such State
or of being sold into slavery.

Nearly everywhere more stringent regulations
and laws 10 were made both for slaves and for free
Negroes. The slaves were deprived of many for-
mer privileges, the enjoyment of which by the Ne-
groes might be dangerous for the white people.
They were more closely guarded and much more
harshly dealt with when guilty of offenses or
crimes. Indeed, three Negroes in as many States
were burned in 1859 for the murder of their mas-

10 The attitude toward both slaves and free Negroes varied
in different Southern States; but as a result of the anti-slavery
agitation, as we approach 1860 the more severe it becomes.

28 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

ters, — one of these was burned before 1,500 or
2,000 people.

Nevertheless, it is quite evident that through-
out the period from 1830 to 1860 the lynching of
Negroes was sporadic, — and usually was resorted
to only for exceptional reasons. Generally the
law was allowed to take its course. However, it
is also plain that after 1850 the law was relied
on less and less, while the people more and more
assumed the initiative in such matters as the ex-
citement increased. What was true as regards the
Negro was undoubtedly true also as regards the
treatment of the abolitionists.

CHAPTER II

LYNCHING DURING THE CIVIL WAR AND THE
CARPET-BAG RULE

IT is said that an Abolitionist Society by a bribe
of $3,000 induced the slave valet of Henry Clay
to leave him and go North. The Society thought
that this large sum would be well spent in produc-
ing what would appear to be such a noteworthy
example of dissatisfaction with the condition of
slavery. Though the Negro accepted the money
and left, he soon repented and returned to his
master. Thereupon Clay gave him $3,000 (for
the Negro had long since spent the bribe), telling
him that when he had returned the sum to those
who had tried to corrupt him that he would be re-
stored to his master's service. The money was
given back as directed and Clay then took the
Negro back as his valet.

Such a case was, no doubt, exceptional. In
one way or another, however, the abolitionists
produced more or less dissatisfaction among the
slaves and were almost wholly responsible for the

30 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

escape to the North of something like an average
of 2,000 a year. The Negroes did not always find
conditions in the North so favorable as they had
been led to suppose. As a consequence it did not
infrequently happen that a "runaway" Negro
would become dissatisfied and return of his own
free will to his master in the South.

During the Civil War those slaves who for any
reason had become dissatisfied with their condition
embraced the first opportunity to gather in the
wake of the Union army, — mainly, no doubt, to
shun work.

While this was true as an exception, the great
mass of the slaves remained quietly at work on
the plantations. Thus, instead of creating an-
tagonism between the two races, the War served
rather to foster and cement a good feeling between
them; indeed, throughout its darkest days they
lived harmoniously side by side. Elizabeth Col-
lins, an Englishwoman, who was in South Caro-
lina the greater part of the War, says:

"In regard to the slave population of Charles-
ton, I may say that they appear to be, almost
without exception, happy and contented."1

Indeed, an examination of several .Southern

1 Elizabeth Collins, "Memories of the Southern States," p. 46.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 31

newspapers and some books of travel 2 revealed
but two possible cases of lynching of Negroes in
the South during the War : A Mr. Harris, Uchee,
Alabama, was murdered by six of his Negroes,
whereupon:

"The citizens of the county about ninety in num-
ber, after consultation, determined upon the im-
mediate execution of the murderers." 8

The other case was in Mississippi : Some Ne-
groes were hung, seemingly, for trying to get on
a steamboat in order to escape from slavery.4 The
Liberator 5 mentions two instances of Negroes
being lynched in New York in 1863 : A negro in
jail at Newburg, on suspicion of rape, was taken
out by a mob "who pounded him almost to death
and then hung him on a tree until he was finished."
Two were also lynched in the City of New York,
one of whom, it seems, was roasted alive.

In no place was there any mention of any Ne-
groes being lynched for rape in the South during
the War. Indeed, it is often said that during the

'The Frankfort (Ky.) Commonwealth, The Charleston (S.
C.) Mercury, The Louisville (Ky.) Democrat for 1863 and
1864, The Daily News (Savannah), for 1862 and one Northern
paper, The Liberator (Boston) for 1863. The books of travel
include Elizabeth Collins' "Memories of the Southern States."

'Savannah News, June 9, 1862.

4 The Liberator, Feb. 22, 1863.

'Ibid., June 26 and July 24, 1863.

32 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING '

Civil War when the white men were nearly all
away from home, leaving the white women almost
at the mercy of the slaves, no Negro was guilty of
a criminal outrage against them.6 It may be true.
Viewed in the light of the sporadic occurrence of
the crime under the restraining influence of slavery
before the War, and of its quite frequent occur-
rence sometime after, it is both remarkable and
suggestive.

It may truly be regarded as evidence not only of
the generally fair treatment that, according to un-
prejudiced travelers, they were receiving in sla-
very, as well as a tribute to their fidelity, but it
also makes it obvious that the Negro and the
Southern white man might have continued in har-
mony mutually advantageous after the War, had
both been free from outside influences.

Almost immediately after the War, however,
the South began to "swarm" with harebrained
preachers and teachers from the North, ostensibly
to elevate the Negro; as a rule, though, they
served no better purpose than to aid in setting the
Negro against his former master. For, it seems,
they cared not what became of the white man so
they secured the "salvation" of the Negro, en-
tirely ignoring that saying of Scripture which is to
the effect that those who fail to serve first their

* Grimke, "Lynching of Negroes," p. 29.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 33

own house or people have denied the faith and are '
worse than infidels.7

Such a condition of affairs was promoted by
Congress, who, at about the close of the War es-
tablished the so-called "Freedmen's Bureau," and
shortly after passed the Civil Rights bill, both of
which tended to cause friction between the two
races. However, as compared with that of a few
years later, the trouble does not appear to have
been very serious notwithstanding exaggerated ac-
counts which were reported to Northern papers.
In most parts of the South and at most times for
something like two years after the War, there
was comparative quiet and safety.

The crimes of the Negroes during these years
were for the most part of a trifling kind, — petty
thievery and robbery. However, it is true they
committed crimes of a very serious nature, also.
Notwithstanding, the law was generally allowed
to have its way. Harriett Martineau observes in
one of her books that nothing struck her more than
the patience of the slave-owners of the South with
their slaves. Even during the first years after
the War a patient and even indulgent spirit was
often manifested by the leading whites toward the
Negroes as to their shortcomings and sometimes
it extended to their serious crimes.

7 7 Timothy, V, 8.

34 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

For instance, in 1866, near Rome, Georgia, a
whole family consisting of a man, wife, and two
daughters, were murdered, and one of the women,
ravished. The newspaper account ends with :8

"It was difficult to restrain the people from in-
flicting summary punishment upon them."

For such a crime now, a Negro would likely be
burned alive. The same paper quotes the follow-
ing from The Raleigh Progress: 9

"Charles Wethers, the rascally Negro, who at-
tempted to commit a rape upon a highly respect-
able young lady of this county some weeks ago,
was placed in the stocks this morning for the last
time, having completed his sit still in the burning
sun for two hours during each day of this week.
He was returned to jail and will remain in the
custody of the sheriff till the workhouse is ready,
in which institution he will labor at five dollars per
month until the fine, $200, and the cost of the trial
have been liquidated by muscle."

Would it now be possible for any one to take
such a tolerant, if not ewn good-natured, — view
of such an affair?

8 Richmond Times, Oct. 24, 1866.
"Ibid., Sept. n, 1866.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 35

In order to make a comparison I have selected
for study, here, two three-year periods: First,
1866-7-8, including the year before and year after
the passing of the Reconstruction Act of 1867 for
the South; second, 1873-4-5, when the carpet-bag
rule, which resulted from the Reconstruction pol-
icy of Congress, was in full operation. Although
the number of lynchings during the first and sec-
ond periods are in striking contrast, even this but
faintly indicates the great change from the com-
parative tranquillity of the first (as illustrated by
newspapers)10 to the confusion, chaos, and crime
of the second.

In 1866, one Negro was lynched in the South
for attempted rape, another was sentenced to
death for rape, and one was sentenced to the peni-
tentiary for a like crime. Also, near Smithfield,
Ohio, Negroes committed outrages on two girls.
In Kentucky three white men were lynched for
murder, and three more were put to death by a

"Newspapers examined for first period: Richmond Times,
1866; Richmond Times, Baltimore American, and the New Or-
leans Times, 1867; and the Sun (Baltimore), Leader (Balti-
more) and Atlanta News Era, 1868; second, Missouri Republi-
can, Baltimore American, 1873; Richmond Enquirer, Baltimore
American, St. Louis Republican, 1874; Baltimore American,
St. Louis Republican, Richmond Enquirer, and New Orleans
Republican, 1875. I do not claim that I found every case of
lynching in the South for either period, but as the same case
would often be found in two or three different papers, I be-
lieve that I found practically all.

36 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

band of regulators. No doubt Kentucky was in-
fluenced in such matters by the example of the
West.

The following occurred in 1867: one Negro
lynched in Missouri by Germans for the murder
of a German ; a Negro given sixty lashes in Dela-
ware for assaulting two white women; three Ne-
groes legally hanged at Charleston, S. C., for out-
rage. In the North, two or more Negro soldiers,
deserters, lynched in Kansas for the rape of a
white woman ; four white men lynched in Indiana
for murder and robbery; thirty men hanged in
three Kansas counties by Vigilantes during the
winter and spring.

For 1868 : Two Negroes who confessed to the
horrible murder of a white family in Mississippi
were taken from a sheriff by a band of Negroes
and burned ; n one Negro was lynched in Ken-
tucky for rape and another in Maryland for at-
tempted rape; two Negroes, in jail for murder,
lynched in Mississippi after boasting that the
Loyal League would prevent their execution, even
if convicted; a man lynched in Tennessee after he

"This lynching of the two Negroes by Negroes is the only
case I found where Negroes alone did the lynching in cases of
crime against the whites. Several times during the seventies,
however, Negroes are found helping the whites to lynch some
Negro guilty of crime. It shows, I believe, that in some places,
at least, the Negroes were yet in accord with the Southern
whites.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 37

had confessed to the murder of three men at dif-
ferent times. In North Carolina over thirty Ne-
gro desperadoes, who confessed to several mur-
ders and robberies, were captured and put in jail.
Ten Adam's Express robbers were lynched in In-
diana; two men lynched for murder in Illinois
and one for stealing horses in Colorado.12

In 1873, however, six Negroes were lynched in
the South for rape; three were legally executed
for the same crime; one, condemned to be hung,
and three awaiting trial — in all, thirteen Negroes
charged with rape. In Louisiana, three Negroes
were lynched in the presence of 1,000 people for
an atrocious murder; four men were also lynched
in Louisiana for cattle-stealing, and another in
the same State for arson. Also, one white man
was lynched in Tennessee by fifteen Negroes. Two
Negroes were legally hanged for murder, — one
in Kentucky, the other in Virginia. In the North:
One white man was lynched in Ohio for rape; a
Negro and a white man were lynched in Nebraska
for robbery, also a Negro for murder; two men
were lynched in Montana for murder and two in
Kansas for supposed murder.

During the year 1874, eleven Negroes and one

a So far as the North and West are concerned, I simply hap-
pened te find such without any special search. I was searching
carefully for lyochings in the South, etc.

3 8 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

white man were lynched in the South for rape,
while two Negroes were legally executed for the
crime. In two instances, — one in Arkansas, the
other in Missouri, — both Negroes and whites took
part in lynching Negroes. Three Negroes were
also lynched in the South for murder and two for
riot; and four Negroes in Tennessee for threat-
ening to kill some whites and to sack and burn a
town. In addition, ten white men were lynched,
four in Arkansas and one in Missouri for horse-
stealing, the others in the States of the Southwest
for scandalous murders. In the North, two Ne-
groes were lynched for murder, and two Negroes
in Pennsylvania and one white man in Kansas for
rape. In the North, also, seven white men, one
Mexican and one Chinaman were lynched for mur-
der, and one white man for horse-stealing and an-
other for thievery.

In 1875, the last year of the second period, —
nine Negroes were lynched in the South for rape
and four for attempted rape; also, one Negro
guilty of rape, and another who attempted rape,
escaped, — in all, fifteen rape cases.13 One man
and two Negroes were lynched for murder. Also
one Negro was legally executed for rape, eleven

18 In 1875, there was another interesting case in which both
Negroes and whites, about equal in number, lynched a Negro
for attempted rape of a white woman.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 39

for murder, and one case cause not given. In the
North, one Negro was lynched, cause not given,
and one Negro guilty of rape, escaped. Three
men, also, were lynched for murder, one for arson,
and one in New York for robbery.

By comparing the two three-year periods it will
be found that during 1 866-8 there were seven
cases of rape or attempted rape by Negroes in
the South. In three instances they were lynched
and in four, the law was allowed to take its course.
While for 1873-5, twenty-six Negroes were
lynched for rape, and four for attempted rape. Six
Negroes were legally executed for rape, one was
under sentence of death for the crime, three were
awaiting trial and two escaped — in all forty-two
Negroes in the South were charged with rape
during the second period. This was just six times
as many as for the first period. Further, ten
times the number of Negroes were lynched for
rape in the South during 1873-5 as during 1 866-8,
or but 43 - - per cent of those charged with the
crime during the first period as against 73 -(- per
cent for the second.

That this wonderful change was due almost
wholly to misgovernment at Washington, no one
can doubt. Surely, History was never obliged
to record a more colossal blunder in statesmanship
than that of Congressional Reconstruction. Nor

40 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

is it likely that any civilized people were ever be-
fore called upon to endure a system of misrule
and legalized plunder equal to that which such
legislation, maybe unwittingly, paved the way for
inaugurating at the South.

The confusion, turmoil, and strife that it cre-
ated is only too well known. Not only did it re-
sult in a cleavage of the social structure, setting
one part against the other, but it also caused as
much or more financial damage to the South than
the War itself. For instance, four and one-half
years of Reconstruction, it is said, cost the State
of Louisiana alone over $106,000,000; while the
assessed valuation of property in New Orleans
dropped from $147,000,000 to $88,500,000 dur-
ing eight years of carpet-bag rule.

It was made easy for political-fortune hunters
from the North, with little concern for the good of
either the whites or the blacks of the South, to
gain position and power through cultivating the
friendship of the ignorant, credulous, newly en-
franchised Negroes. This they assiduously did
from the start. At the same time they left noth-
ing undone which might create and foster among
the Negroes a feeling of ill will against and dis-
trust of the Southern whites. If their former
masters came into power, the Negroes were some-
times told, they would be reduced to slavery. The

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH ' 41

Negroes' love of display was appealed to by en-
couraging them to form secret societies, to make
public parades, and hold celebrations which tend-
ed to create a race consciousness and race soli-
darity. This, of course, was for the purpose of
helping the carpet-baggers in perpetuating their
power. If one considers the conditions, what else
could be expected but riots and lynchings?

If the control of the Negroes in slavery times,
with all the advantages to such end embodied in
the institution of slavery, had often been one of
anxiety to the South, how fearful must have been
the conditions now that they were not only free
from such control but enfranchised and taught by
their new friends to be self-assertive, even if not
sometimes encouraged in acts of violence against
the Southern white people ? It does, indeed, seem
that a great part of the Negroes almost ran wild —
for they were free, but did not understand how
to use their freedom. So, lazy, worthless, rob-
bing, murdering gangs of them went prowling
through the South. For it is as natural for the
Negro to sit in idleness, or shoot crap, to go on
marauding expeditions or connive at insurrections,
as it is for the white man to establish courts, col-
lect libraries, and found schools.

Can History prove that the Negro, during his
thousands of years of contact with superior races,

42 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

has ever yet risen to the dignity of stable and
progressive self-government? Even Liberia, with
all the help that has been given her, is gradually
sinking to the level of the surrounding barbarism.
And what of San Domingo? Indeed, everywhere
the tendency of the pure Negro is to fall when the
white man's props are removed.

To return: If there ever was a time when the
best elements in a society were justified in taking
the law into their own hands, that time was during
carpet-bag rule. The wonder now is that such
a people as those of the South should have acted
with even the moderation that appears.

That some of the carpet-bag governments were
absolutely corrupt goes without saying. "Get all
you can in any way you can" seemed to be the
idea. Justice was for sale. In some instances, it
is said, the criminal elements knew that any one
could commit crime and escape punishment for a
money consideration. A few examples may be
of interest:14 A man who was accused of out-
rageously murdering a woman, although caught
and imprisoned, was released, it is said, without
even a trial, for $800. Moreover, a Negro who
had been sentenced by a court to the penitentiary
was released and returned home on the same train
as the sheriff who took him there. Indeed, the ac-

14 St. Louis Republican, Sept. 14, 1875.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 43

cusation was made that a certain carpet-bag gov-
ernor, in order to help the Republican Party, con-
nived at the killing of a number of Negroes in
such a way that the blame might fall on the South-
ern whites. At one place,15 a court in passing
judgment on a convicted Negro rapist merely sent
him to the penitentiary, which so enraged the peo-
ple of the community that they took him from jail
and hanged him near the place of his crime.

In order that one may the better understand the
reason for the development of the lynching spirit
in the South the following quotations are given:

I. "New Iberia, La., Sept. 13, the Parish of
Vermilion for years has been infested with cattle
thieves. The people have been unable to obtain
redress by process of law and last month they or-
ganized a vigilant committee as a last resort. A
large number of thieves and their confederates
were given notice to leave within a specified time
but instead of doing so armed themselves and
threatened to destroy the town of Abbeville. The
Vigilantes pressed them and they scattered. It is
reported that three of the band were hung on
Friday. . . . All kinds of vague rumors are afloat
concerning the number executed." 16

"St. Louis Republican, July 22, 1875.
"Missouri Republican, Sept. 14, 1873.

44 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

II. "The right of a robbed people to revolt
against robbery. ... In Edgefield, S. C., a few
days ago the country was startled by a resolution
adopted at a meeting of the citizens of the county,
which declared that, 'Parties black or white who
may be caught in the act of firing any house in this
county shall be dealt with in accordance with the
precedents of Lynch law, which is a part of the
unwritten law of America.'

"Edgefield people present a statement of facts
which while not justifying resort to Lynch law
shows a strong provocation for it. Just before
the November election, the most prominent white
Radical of the county is said to have advised the
Negroes to burn the houses of the whites; and that
this advice was not lost on them seems to be
proved by the fact that thirteen citizens were
burned out of their homes by incendiaries between
the yth and I9th of December. The Radicals
have a large majority and they have used their
power without mercy.

"No security for persons or property, for the
Negroes and poor whites who act with them had
a majority on every jury so that it was impossible
to convict one of their number no matter how plain
the evidence. And even if convicted was prompt-
ly pardoned by the infamous executive, Moses.
To such an extent was this carried that Carpenter,

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 45

the Republican Judge of the circuit, announced
that he would not permit the State to be put to
the expense of trying criminals who were pardoned
as soon as convicted. The citizens assert that
Lynch law is the only remedy for the evils they
endure and therefore they proclaim it. They may
be wrong but they are more sinned against than
sinning." 17

III. "Augusta, Ga., Aug. 23. — Several promi-
nent Negroes connected with the troubles in the
qounties below have made confessions. Jake
Moorman, First Lieutenant of a Negro company,
testifies on oath that 19 counties were to be em-
braced in the insurrection. All white men and
ugly white women were to be killed. Pretty white
women were to be spared and the land and spoils
were to be divided among the Negroes.18 All who
have so far confessed testify to substantially the
same as Jake Moorman." 19

"Editorial, St. Louis Republican, Jan. i, 1875.

"This recalls an account of the Texan Negro insurrection of
1860 as quoted by The Liberator of July 21, 1860: "The old
females were to be slaughtered along with the men, and the
young and handsome women were to be parcelled out among
those infamous scoundrels. They had even gone so far as to
designate their choice. . . . The Negroes have been incited to
these infernal proceedings by the abolitionists."

19 St. Louis Republican, Aug. 24, 1875. Accounts of riots in
Mississippi, in which several were killed, were given by the
same paper, Sept 5, 7, 1875.

46 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

However, in some States, — for instance, Vir-
ginia, Maryland, and Delaware, — where the
Southern whites had control, order was preserved
and comparative quiet prevailed, while the lynch-
ing of Negroes was sporadic, not only during this
early period, but even until the present. Discord
and collisions between the two races have been
almost unknown.

It is doubtful if any greater mistake was made
in dealing with the South after the War than in
disfranchising the leading Southern whites and
granting the Negro suffrage. The Negro might
have been given the ballot gradually as he proved
himself fitted for it without any detriment. But
considering the race as a whole — it may be put-
ting it too mild — it may be too great a compli-
ment to the Negro, — too disparaging to the in-
telligence of the average white boy, — to say that
the Negroes, with some exceptions, at that time
were no more fit for the ballot than seven-year-old
boys. Nor was it any more reasonable to expect
them to act the part of men in using it, or in politi-
cal affairs, than to expect it from seven-year-old
boys. They were, and to a large extent are yet,
a race in its childhood.

President Lincoln, however, seems to have un-
derstood better than any one else of his party
what was for the best interest of both races : That

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 4?

the Negroes, at least, for a while, with proper
guarantees and restrictions, should be in a posi-
tion of tutelage or apprenticeship to the whites.
Indeed, there is little doubt that he expected the
Southern States to make some such temporary ar-
rangements, for in a proclamation, December 8,
1863, in reference to the reestablishment of State
governments by several States of the farther
South, he says :

"That any provision which may be adopted by
such State government, in relation to the freed
people of such State which shall recognize and
declare their permanent freedom, provide for
their education, and which may yet be consistent
as a temporary arrangement with their present
condition as a laboring, landless and homeless
class, will not be objected to by the National Ex-
ecutive."

But unfortunately for both races in the South,
Lincoln was assassinated.

CHAPTER III

LYNCHING FROM THE END OF CARPET-BAG RULE
TO THE PRESENT TIME

BEGINNING in 1885, The Chicago Daily Trib-
une 1 has kept a record of lynchings to the present
time. Although statistics are to many very dry
reading, nevertheless, to others, who are more im-
pressed by facts than fancy, they are of the most
intense interest. However that may be, here they

1 Lynchings in the country for the past thirty-two years ac-
cording to The Chicago Daily Tribune, Dec. 30, 1916:

1885 184 1901 130

1886 138 1902 96

1887 122 1903 104

1888 142 1904 87

1889 176 1905 60

1890 127 1906 60

1891 191 1907 65

1892 205 1908 100

1893 2OO 1909 87

1894 190 1910 74

1895 171 1911 71

1896 131 1912 64

1897 106 1913 48

1898 127 1914 54

1899 107 1915 98

1900 115 1916 58

THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING 49

appear to be indispensable to any satisfactory con-
sideration of the subject.

The following statistics which are based upon
the records of The Chicago Daily Tribune are
compiled by periods: excepting the last which is
for four years, these periods were taken almost in-
discriminately for two years together, beginning
with 1885 and 1886:

LYNCHINGS AND LEGAL EXECUTIONS FOR 1885
AND 1886

In the United States there were 314: 159
whites, 149 Negroes, and 6 Chinamen; 62 in the
North, 252 in the South. Of those lynched in
the South, 144 were Negroes; nearly all the
whites were lynched in the Southwest for horse-
stealing and murder; the Negroes were lynched
for the following causes: 51, rape; 65, murder;
12, incendiarism; 6, arson; 3, cattle and horse-
stealing; i, self-defense; I, robbery; I, threat of
political exposures; i, assault; 2 cutting levees;
i, cause not mentioned. There were also 191 legal
executions in the country; 72 Negroes in the South,
63 for murder and 9 for rape.

LYNCHINGS AND LEGAL EXECUTIONS FOR THE
YEARS 1892 AND 1893

The whole number for the country was 436:
309 Negroes, no whites, 5 Mexicans, and 8 In-
dians. 53 lynchings in the North. 287 Negroes
in the South: 74, rape; 18, attempted rape; 5, al-
leged rape; i, attempted rape — total, 88 for rape.
99, murder. Nearly all the remainder for mur-
derous assault, alleged or complicity in murder,
arson, etc. 231 legal executions. 127 of these
were Negroes in the South: 1 18, murder; 6, rape;
3, arson. In the North, 9 Negroes were legally
executed for murder.

LYNCHINGS AND LEGAL EXECUTIONS FOR 1901
AND 1902

Lynchings for the country, 231. 29, North;
202, South. 194 Negroes; 35 whites; 2 Indians;
i Chinaman. 185 Negroes lynched in the South:
40, rape; 19, attempted rape — total, 59 for rape;
63, murder; 7, murderous assault; 4, complicity
in murder; 3, suspected murder; 3, implicated in
murder; 2, sheltering murderers; i, attempted
murder; 6, theft; 5, Negroes' quarrel of profit
sharing; 4, race prejudice; i, making threats; i,
lawlessness; i, mistaken identity; remainder,

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 51

causes not given. In the North, 9 Negroes were
lynched, 5 for rape and 4 for murder. There
were 262 legal executions, of which 162 were Ne-
groes. Execution of Negroes in South: 128,
murder; 14, rape; 4, attempted rape. In the
North, 1 6 Negroes were executed for murder,
nearly all in Pennsylvania.

LYNCHINGS AND LEGAL EXECUTIONS FOR 1906
AND 1907

For the United States, 132. 3, North; 129,
South. Negroes lynched in the South, 129: 27,
rape; 25, attempted rape; 2 rape and murder; I,
suspected rape — total, 55 for rape; 2 32, murder;
13, murderous assault; 5, race riot; remainder,
minor causes. There were also 189 legal execu-
tions. Of these 115 were Negroes in the South, —
15 for rape and 100 for murder.

LYNCHINGS AND LEGAL EXECUTIONS FOR 19! I-
1914, INCLUSIVE

During these four years there were 235 lynch-
ings in the United States. 1 1, North; 224, South.

2 It seems fair to count rape, alleged rape, attempted rape, and
so on, — all as rape; for it often happens that a Negro commits
rape and escapes entirely. As an example, see account of the
lynching of Ed. Berry (Baltimore Sun, Aug. 27, 1915). Berry
confessed to twelve cases of criminal assault, each victim being
a white woman.

52 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

In the North, 5 Negroes and 6 whites were
lynched; in the South, 215 Negroes, 8 whites, and
i Mexican. The causes for the lynching of Ne-
groes in the South were as follows: 33, rape; 8,
attempted rape; 2, alleged rape, — total, 43 for
rape; 117, murder; 14, murderous assault; 3,
complicity in murder; I, suspicion of murder; i,
alleged murder; 5, arson; 5, race prejudice; 8,
insulting white women ; 1 1 , by night riders in Ken-
tucky; i, refusal to pay note; i, race troubles; i,
threat to kill; i, assault and robbery; i, horse-
stealing; i, annoying white women.; remainder,
cause not given. The number of legal executions
in the whole country for the four years, were 381.
Of these 136 were Negroes, 1 12 in the South, and
24 for murder in the North. In the South: 93,
murder; 10, rape; 2, attempted rape; i, burglary;
4, cause not given.

Now, adverting to the statistics for 1873-5, —
not far removed from the beginning of the Negro-
lynching disorder, — it is found that of the 44 Ne-
groes lynched in the South during the three years,
30, or 70 — per cent, were lynched for rape; while
but 14, or 30+ per cent, were lynched for all
other causes combined. Thus it is seen that at
this time rape was practically the only cause for
the lynching of Negroes in the South.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 53

Moreover, it is quite evident from the statistics
above given, beginning with 1885, that rape has
continued to be, if not the whole cause for the
lynching of Negroes in the South, anyhow almost
that, with other crimes as merely incidental:

The three pairs of years, — 1885-6, 1901-2, and
1906-7, — show 165 Negroes lynched in the
South for rape, 160 for murder, and 127 for all
other causes. Here rape takes the lead. Adding
to these figures the statistics for 1892-3, the num-
bers for the four pairs of year are: 259, murder;
253, rape; and 227, minor causes. Again, adding
for the four years 1911-14, the result for the
twelve years, is: 376, or 39+ per cent, mur-
der; 296, or 31+ per cent, rape; and 282, or
29+ per cent, minor causes. This would seem to
indicate that rape was not even the leading cause.

However, according to the statistics for the
twelve years under consideration, 502, or 57+ per
cent of the Negroes in the South who committed
murder during these years were legally executed,
and but 376, or 43— per cent were lynched;
while for rape, only 60, or 16+ per cent were
legally executed, and 296, or 84— per cent were
lynched.8 The proportion may be stated thus:

'This argument assumes, of course, that all Negroes who
murdered whites in the South were either lynched or legally exe-
cuted, and that all Negroes caught who committed rape against
white women were likewise dealt with. It seems to be about
as fair in one case as the other to assume this.

57 *43 : :i6 :84=7+. This shows that a Negro is
more than seven times as liable to be lynched in
the South for rape than even for murder.

Indeed, the belief of the average white man
of the South that lynching is the most effective way
of dealing with the Negro for his crime against
white women also seems to be borne out by the
statistics: In 1892-3, 88 Negroes were lynched
for rape; in 1901-2, 59; while for the four years
1911-14, only 43. That this great reduction in
rape cases and lynchings was not due to legal ex-
ecutions is shown by the fact that during the same
time but 36 Negroes were legally executed, only
12 of these being for the four years 1911-14.
Thus as a consequence of a reduction in the crime
of rape by Negroes is noted a great reduction in
the lynching of Negroes, — from 287 in 1892-3;
185, 1901-2; 129, 1906-7; to 91 for 1913-14.

However, during 1915 and 1916, 104 Negroes
were lynched in the South as compared with 91
for 1913 and 1914. The increased number
lynched for rape is very marked: being only 13
for 1913 and 1914, but twice the number, or 26,
for 1915 and 1916. During the former two
years, also, 6 Negroes were legally hanged for
rape as compared to 12 for the latter. The pro-
portion remains the same: thus during 1913 and

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 55

1914, 19 Negroes in the South were put to death
for rape as compared with 38 for 1915 and 1916.

Although the legal execution of 12 Negroes in
the South for rape during 1915 and 1916 may
show a tendency to allow the law to take its
course in such cases, may not the above statistics
also indicate that when for a few years but few
lynchings occurred, especially for the crime of
rape, that the effect of such immediate and fearful
punishment — consisting of burning as it sometimes
does — gradually fades from the mind of the
Negro inclined to such crime, with a great in-
crease of rape as a consequence?

Again, in extenuation of lynching, it is im-
portant to observe, that, as a result of most crimes
against the body, such as murder, but little, if
any, humiliation attaches. But it is quite differ-^-
ent in rape cases. Not only is there often great
physical injury, but also an unutterable humilia-
tion. Our civilization teaches that one should \
hold certain personal rights and considerations
even more dear than life itself. To have in mind
such ideas and live up to them measures our
reach above lower peoples. That this feeling or
spirit should be encouraged, rather than risk its
check, is not to be questioned. Therefore, the
average Southern white man does not believe that
the innocent rape victim of a Negro should be

56 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

U. obliged to endure further humiliation incident
upon her appearance in a court of law.

In this connection, a set of resolutions published
by those who lynched a Negro at Annapolis, Md.,
in 1875, are interesting. These resolutions, which
set forth the causes of the act, were drawn up
before the lynching took place and show serious
consideration. I quote:4

"Fellow Citizens: In view of the fact that
we are about to take into our hands the sword of
justice to do to death one who is now incarcerated
in our county jail, it is meet that we should give
.V some reason for the purpose we hope to consum-
mate. First, then: While we can but honor the
deep feeling of interest manifested by those who
are the proper guardians of our lives, our prop-
erty, and our honor; and while we, as true and
loyal citizens of the State of Maryland, and of
Anne Arundel County, do bend to the supreme
majesty of the law and acknowledge trials by jury
as the very arch-stone in the grand edifice of hu-
man rights, still we know the vilest criminal is ac-
corded the same rights under the law that belong
to the petty thief, nor can this devil incarnate,
should he claim his rights, be denied the privilege
of a change of venue, such a circumstance might

* Baltimore American, June 15, 1875.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 57

probably rob the gallows of its due and foil the *
aims of the law. Before God we believe in the
existence of a higher code than that which is digni-
fied by the great seal of a Commonwealth and that
the high and holy time to exercise it is when the
chastity of our women is tarnished by the foul
breath of an imp from hell and the sanctity of our I
homes invaded by a demon.

"Secondly, admitting that in the event of a
trial by a jury he shall be hanged — a highly prob-
able result — yet would his execution be as illegal
as though done by a band of wronged citizens;
for must not a juror be a peer, and with a mind,
free of bias, and where can a man be found com-
petent to try this case? Who can be found of
his level, and who that has heard has not already
convicted him in his mind? At best, that which
would be done under the semblance of law would
be a more sham by force of all the circumstances
connected with this horrible deed, and if under the
law the penalty is death, and we know the deed
was committed by him — we claim that there is n5 •
moral difference in the means of destroying him,
and we act upon this conviction.

"Thirdly, we are not willing that the victim
shall be dragged into court to tell over and over
again the story of her terrible wrongs, or that
her name shall be entered upon the records of

58 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

our criminal jurisprudence for future reference."
Further comment on this lynching is unnec-
essary— unless indirectly: the Negro, child of
Africa, but lately removed from the jungle, be-
cause of the necessity of the habitat of his origin,
has had developed in him by nature, possibly,
stronger sexual passion than is to be found in any

\other race.5 But he is infinitely lacking in the
high mental, moral, and emotional qualities that
are especially characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon,
and it is a grievous mistake to attribute such high
qualities to him. When proper restraint is re-
moved from the Negro he gets beyond bounds.
The Anglo-Saxon, indeed, or members of that
race, has a way of meeting extraordinary condi-
tions with extraordinary means — hence lynching in
* order to hold in check the Negro in the South.

Indeed, a country occupied by two races so
widely apart in origin, characteristics, and devel-
opment as the whites and the Negroes of the
Southern States — one race of the highest mental
endowments and culture, the other of the lowest —
one having a civilization that reaches back hun-
dreds, if not thousands, of years, the other in
the early dawn of civilization — might reasonably
have two codes of law suited, as nearly as pos-
sible, to each race, respectively.

"To make up for the high death rate.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 59

A mode of punishment that would be out of
place as to the white man may be well suited to
the Negro. Small-pox is not to be treated as
chicken-pox. Barbarous criminals require bar-,
barous laws. The innocent and law-abiding cit-
izens of a State have rights as well as the crim-
inals— at least, the right to protection from the
criminals. But let some crafty scoundrel finally
get in jail, and he will be flooded with letters of
consolation and sympathy from sentimental
women and soft-headed men.6 And let some
Negro brute, guilty of rape, suffer the punishment
he so richly deserved at the hands of an outraged
community, and one would think, if he considered
the bitter censure from distant quarters, that the
foundations of the government were being under-
mined, or that a poor lamb was set upon by a
pack of howling wolves, thirsting for its blood,
but not a word of commiseration for the family,
or the victim, of the fiendish Negro's unbridled
bestiality.

Moreover, instead of a Negro's being over-
awed by the solemn deliberations of a court,
rather, as he is the center of interest, he all but

•Joliet, 111., Sept. 10 (1917), Riot in Staff Prison. Rioters
numbered about fifty. Had become angered at impositions of
restrictions. "Among the privileges previously enjoyed by the
convicts was an almost unlimited correspondence with senti-
mental women." — Washington (D. C.) Star, Sept. 10, 1917.

60 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

enjoys it. For once in his life he finds himself
in a position of prominence. It would be contrary
to the Negro nature if he were not somewhat
elated at being the object of so much attention.
Even were this not the case, he has no such ap-
preciation of his degradation as the white man
feels under similar circumstances. Indeed, it
would sometimes appear as almost a triumphal
procession for him from the time he gets in jail
until he reaches the gallows. The two quotations
below may help to justify this idea :

"Joe Clark, colored, . . . was hanged
at this place on Friday forenoon, in the presence
of about 3,000 persons, mostly Negroes. Clark
spoke about fifteen minutes, giving a detailed ac-
count of the murder and fully confessing the
crime. He advised all present to live an upright
life. . . . After he had shaken hands with
his friends the trap was sprung, and thus the sen-
tence of the court was duly executed. Clark's
last request was that the black cap be kept of, so
that all might see how easy he could meet death"'1

The second one is taken from accounts of the
execution at Denton, Md., of "Wish" Shepperd,
colored, for the outrage of a fifteen-year-old white
girl:8

' Taken from Richmond Enquirer, May 4, 1775.
* Baltimore Sun, August 27-28, 1915.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 61

"He told his spiritual advisers that he had a
message for the public: 'Tell all the young men
to avoid the fate that awaits me by joining the
church and attending its services.' [Evidently
inspired by his preacher advisers] . . .
He slumbered soundly, the guards noticed, and
awoke early this morning apparently indifferent
to his doom. . . . With a firm step he
accompanied the officers and his spiritual advisers
to the scaffold which was erected near the Chop-
tank River. Passing undismayed through the
throng which had gathered along the way from
the prison to the gallows. His gaze passed fear-
lessly around surveying the people." . . .

Again, in connection with the lynching of
Negroes in the South, one must not lose sight
of the conditions that are peculiar to that section.
The greater the number of Negroes in propor-
tion to the whites in any State or community the
easier it is for the Negro to commit crime and
escape. And the Negro criminal does often es-
cape. Seldom is it found that the Negro will
aid in the detection of the Negro criminal, rather
otherwise. Even the hope of escape is a won-
derful encouragement to the criminally inclined.

Now, before the War, as is well known, the
South was almost entirely an agricultural section.

62 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

It had but few cities and these were small. In the
last thirty or forty years, however, it has been
rapidly developing manufacturing industries.
Some of the cities have become great industrial
centers.

Nor is manufacturing confined at all to the
large cities. Indeed, almost every town in some
parts has a cotton mill or other establishment. As
illustrations, I may mention Hickory, N. C., and
La Grange, Ga. Hickory, with a population of
about 5,000, has two large cotton mills; the Pied-
mont Wagon Shops, which employs hundreds of
men; several furniture factories, saw mills, and
other industrial interests. La Grange, a city ol
about 6,000, has ten cotton mills, one of which is
valued at $1,000,000, and four of the others at
$500,000, each. In the manufacture of cotton
alone the South has increased from 316,000 bales
in 1885 to 3,193,000 bales in 1915.

As a consequence the white people have largely
been drawn to the towns and cities : the wealthier
own and control the various business interests
while the poorer ones contribute their help or la-
bor. Few Negroes work in the factories, for the
Negro seems to lack the qualities necessary: name-
ly, punctuality, dependability, and a certain amount
of mental alertness. So, in some parts of the
South the whites are nearly all living in the towns

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 63

and cities, while the country districts are filled with
Negroes. However, even in such places there are
some whites in the country, and as is evident, in
additional danger.

Moreover, the population of several Southern
States is nearly half Negro, while in two, — South
Carolina and Mississippi, — it is even more than
half Negro, being 55+ per cent and 56+ per
cent, respectively. Indeed, in 53 counties of the
South the Negro population of each exceeds 75
per cent. In Tensas Parish, La., and Isoquena
County, Miss., the Negro population is 91.5 per
cent and 94.2 per cent, respectively. That is, in
every 1,000 persons one meets in Isoquena County,
Miss., 942 are Negroes and but 58, white. Such
conditions should be readily appreciated. Is it
any wonder that the white man thinks it necessary
to strike terror into the soul of the possible or
incipient Negro criminal by any method that may
cause him to stand in fear of an immediate and
dreadful death?

Further, the origin of a great part of these Ne-
groes, especially those of the farther South, is,
also, worthy of consideration.

During the operation of the internal slave trade,
it was usually the most undesirable, unruly, and
the criminally inclined Negroes of the border
slave States that were sold to the States of the

64 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

farther South ; nor should it be forgotten that be-
tween 1808 and 1860 the farther South received
around 270,000 Negroes from outside the United
States.9 It seems likely that the greater part of
these were barbarous Negroes, directly from
Africa. It was these criminal and barbarous Ne-
groes, along with their children and grand-chil-
dren, who by the fortune of war, without home or
master, were turned loose on the South.

Thus it is that the white woman is obliged to
be constantly on her guard against the Negro, —
otherwise rape cases would be multiplied.10 An
idea of the necessity of this and the hardship of
it may be had from the following quotation :

"In a population about evenly divided in North
Carolina was a family of unpretending intelligent
people.

"There was a school house only a mile and a
half away, but they could not let their two daugh-
ters go to it. They could not let them stir away
from home unprotected. They had to pay for
their education at home, while at the same time
they were being taxed for the education of the Ne-
gro children of the district.

' W. H. Collins, "The Domestic Slave Trade," p. 20.

"It is unlikely that all rape cases get in the papers. An intel-
ligent resident of Rapides Parish, La., told the writer that four
cases of rape occurred in that parish once within a month.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 65

' 'Do you think,' was asked a leading Negro
educator, 'that those girls could safely have gone
to school?'

1 'It would depend upon the district,' was the
reply. 'In some districts the girls could have gone
to school safely enough; in others, no.'
"This I think was a terrible admission." n

As the world is to be made safe for democracy, j
so ought the South to be made free for white
women. Is it not the business of the South to en-
deavor to make the South safe for white women »
by whatever method appears to be most effective ?
The women of the South should be just as free
to go when, where, and as they please as women
in other sections of the country and not be, as has
been so aptly put by John Temple Graves, "pris-
oners to danger and fear":

"In a land of light and liberty, in an age of en-
lightenment and law, the women of the South are
prisoners to danger and fear. While your women
may walk from suburb to suburb, and from town-
ship to township, without escort and without
alarm, there is not a woman of the South, wife
or daughter, who would be permitted or who
would dare to walk at twilight unguarded through

"William Archer, "Through Afro America," London, 1910,
p. 22.

66 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

the resident streets of a populous town, or to ride
the outside highways at midday.

"The terror of the twilight deepens with the
darkness, and in the rural regions every farmer
leaves his home with apprehension in the morning,
and thanks God when he comes from the fields
at evening to find all well with the women of his
home." 12

A few words now as to the minor causes of
lynching. In reading the annual summary of
lynchings given by the Chicago Tribune, one may
get the impression that Negroes are often lynched
for very trifling things. Investigation, however,
is apt to show that back of any such lynching was
something much more serious than what appears
on the face. Many illustrations might be given
but one may suffice: thirteen Negroes lynched in
Arkansas, March 26, 1904, cause, race preju-
dice.13 The following account of this affair is
abbreviated from an Arkansas paper:14

"Dewitt (Ark.), March 25. — Five Negroes
who had been arrested as a result of the race
troubles at St. Charles, were taken from the

"Address: John Temple Graves, New York Times, Sept. 4,
1903.

"The Chicago Daily Tribune, Dec. 31, 1904.

14 Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock), March 26, 1904. See also
Daily Arkansas Democrat, March 29, 1904.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 67

guards by a crowd of men last night and shot to
death. . . . The five victims make nine Negroes
that have been killed within the past week in the
vicinity of St. Charles. . . .

"A few days ago a difficulty occurred over a
trivial matter at St. Charles between a white man
by the name of Searcy and two Negroes by the
names of Henry and Walker Griffin. One of the
Negroes threatened to knock Searcy in the head
with a beer bottle. The trouble was stopped for
the time being, but on Monday last the two Ne-
groes met Searcy and his brother in the store of
Woolfords and Marsworthy in St. Charles, and
the difficulty was renewed. One of the Negroes
without warning, struck both of the Searcy boys
over the head with a table leg, rendering them
unconscious and fracturing their skulls, one of
them to such an extent that he may die. The
Deputy Sheriff, . . . James Kirkpatrick, at-
tempted to arrest the Negroes and he, too, was
knocked down.

"The Negroes then gathered and defied the of-
ficers, declaring that 'No white man could arrest
them.' Their demonstrations aroused the fear of
the citizens of St. Charles and they phoned to this
place for a posse to come out and protect the
town. P. A. Douglass, deputy sheriff, went out
with five men, Wednesday morning. Constable

68 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

L. C. Neely went forward with a posse of several
men to capture the Griffin Negroes. The con-
stable met three Negroes ... in the road. He
inquired of them if they knew where the Griffins
were and one of them replied that they did, but

'would tell no white ' the Negroes then

attempted to draw their pistols, but the posse fired,
killing all three of them.

"Yesterday sixteen men left this place for the
scene of the trouble. . . . Large crowds in from
Roc, Ethel, and Clarenden. During the day while
the Sheriff's posse was searching for the Griffin
Negroes, they were fired upon by a Negro . . .
from ambush. Three of the posse were hit, but
the shot used were small, and no serious damage
resulted. The posse returned the fire, and a shot
. . . felled the Negro to the ground. Several
other shots were fired into him, killing him in-
stantly.

"Five other Negroes . . . who were the Ne-
groes that had defied the officers, were arrested,
and last night a crowd of men took them away
from the guards and shot them to death." The
next issue of the same paper stated that two more
Negroes had been killed, and the Daily Arkansas
Democrat, March 29, reported that the Griffins
who were the cause of the original trouble had
been killed, completing the list of thirteen.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 69

The above quotation is given merely as an ex-
ample of a state of affairs so apt to exist in con-
nection with what usually passes as trivial causes
for lynching. May those at a distance from such"! ^,
conditions the better understand!

Thus far I have not discussed lynching in the
North, nor do I purpose to do so ; but a few words
in passing seem pertinent. There is no basis for
the assumption, which some seem innocently to
hold, that the people of the North are inherently
good and law-abiding, while those of the South
are inherently wicked and lawless. Indeed, sta-
tistics would seem to indicate the opposite.15 In
1910 over 750 persons to the 100,000 popula-
tion were committed to prison in New England as
against less than 450 in the South. I take it that
the people of the North are neither better nor
worse than those of the South. The same condi-
tions in either section would produce about the
same results. The statistics of lynching I gathered
for the North were merely incidental. However,
for 1901 and 1902, I find that nine Negroes were
lynched in the North, four for murder and five
for rape.

Further evidence that the people of the North
will engage in lynching when necessity dictates
may be had from the early history of California.

"Statistical Abstract of the U. S., 1915, p. 55.

70 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

Vigilance committees for the protection of the
better class of citizens against the disorderly and
criminal elements, were organized without war-
rant of law. In writing of one of these commit-
tees H. H. Bancroft says that it was well repre-
sented by men of wealth, intelligence and indus-
try, and that "the largest element comprised men
from the Northeastern part of the United
States." 16

Of remedies for lynching I have none. Of pro-
posed remedies, I have only to say that those
which seem in any way practicable might result in
unmerited hardship to whites and an increase in
rape cases as well. Any hope of escape or miti-
gation of punishment that even unintentionally
may be held out to the criminal serves as a won-
derful stimulant to crime. The positive knowl-
edge on the part of those criminally inclined that
punishment will be immediate, sure, and adequate,
is the best deterrent. The Negro is a creature
that lives in the present and even postponement of
punishment robs it of much of its force. The law
sanctions personal self-defense. The white man
in lynching a Negro does it as an indirect act of
self-defense against the Negro criminal as a race.

When the abnormally criminal Negro race
(partly so, no doubt, because he is not yet ad-

19 H. H. Bancroft, "Popular Tribunals," Vol. II, pp. 666-7.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 71

justed to his environment) puts himself in har-
mony with our civilization, if ever, through as-
similating our culture and making our ideals its
own, then may it be hoped that his crimes will be
reduced to normal and lynching will cease, the
cause being removed.

CHAPTER IV

THE CRIMINALITY OF THE NEGRO

THE present criminal status of the Negro, —
and his criminal record since the Civil War as
well, — should cause every member of the race in
America to hang his head in shame.

Yet, may it not be that, after all, the Negro is,
to a large extent, an irresponsible creature of cir-
cumstances, and that his crimes are upon the heads
of those who unwisely placed him in a position
that he was unable to occupy, — except with in-
jury to all concerned?

Scholars hold that the average citizen of the
ancient Athenian Democracy, the greatest of an-
cient democracies, was as intelligent as the aver-
age member of the British Parliament, or of the
American Congress. The Negro, however, with
all his barbarism and ignorance, totally unrelated
to the white man in origin, character, and race,
directly after his emancipation, was made a full-
fledged citizen in the greatest of modern democ-
racies. The fact is appalling.

THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING 73

Stupidity unsurpassed, unless by the pacifist
visionaries of the present day who seek to usher in
the millennium by proclamation, — peace treaties,
world federations, or leagues to enforce peace.
Human nature cannot be changed overnight by
edict. When the sun fails to rise wars will cease.
It is to be hoped that enough sanity yet remains
in the American people to save them from such
nonsensical vagaries of sentimental dreamers.

But the Negro, son of a wild and tropical race,
content for thousands of years to roam the jungles
of Africa, supplied by bountiful nature with all
his heart's desire, failing thus to develop any con-
trolling trait of character, or mental stamina, and
although civilizations rose and fell beside him, it
meant nothing to him. And even now in the midst
of American civilization he is moved to action,
mainly, by the gusts of primitive emotion and
passion. This is the creature that was expected to
take an equal share in the government of the most
enlightened and progressive people that the world
has ever known.

"Who sows to the wind shall reap the whirl-
wind." So to-day all other domestic problems or
questions pale before — "What shall be done about
the Negro? The mob acts upon it, conventions
of learned sociologists discuss it. Every superficial
thinker has a solution of the problem, — ready

74 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

made, but never in good working order. The Ne-
gro is such a problem in our society mainly, no
doubt, because he represents the chief criminal ele-
ment,— how criminal, let statistics, by way of com-
parison, declare:

In the Northern and Western States in 1910,
one white person was in a penal institution for
every 982 of the white population, and one Negro
for every 123 of the Negro population; while
in the South, the ratio was one to every 2014 for
the white, and one Negro to every 308 of the
Negro population. Thus in the North Negroes
had eight times their proportion in prison, and in
the South six and one-half times. That Negro
crime is on the increase is evidenced by the fact
that in 1 890 the Negroes had hardly six times their
proportion in prison in the North, and hardly five
times their share in the South.

In this connection statistical tables should be
helpful and interesting as well. Table I gives a
comparative showing of whites and Negroes in
some State penitentiaries. Instead of giving the
number of prisoners on hand at a certain time,
some prison reports give the number received and
discharged during a certain period of time while
a few give both. In Table II is given the num-
ber of prisoners received by the penitentiaries of
a few States during a specified time.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 75

TABLE I

State

Population in 1910

Number in Penitentiary 1

Fimes the
lumber of
fcgroes to
Whites,
fear 1910,
or There-
abouts

White

Negro

Year

White

Negro "5

Alabama

1,228,833

008,883 i

IO03
I9IO
1914

201
4l6

357

535 ]
1.976 \
3,352 J

Georgia

1,431,802

1,176,087 I

1905
I9IO
1914
I9l6

291

3&O

1.989 )
3,300
3.693
3,170 J

Mississippi.. .

786,111

1,009,487 |

IOOI

1913
1915

107
156
145

928 |

l'ssi
1,336 j

7 +

Maryland. . .

1,062,639

232,250 |

1006
1910

1915

354
369
402

586 i
663 }
682 J

Tennessee. . .

1.711,432

473.088 I

1910
1912

1914

533
651

1.336 ]
1.397 }
1,208 j

Arkansas

1,131,026

443,891 1

1906
1913

344

313

«S }

Texas

3,204,848
941,086

690,049 1
713.894 I

1008

1910

1904

1910

1915

1,094
1,119

349
382
383

1.987 l
3,095 /

38 1

1.663 J

8+
5 +

Louisiana

Kentucky . . .

3,027,951

361,656 |

1911

1915

603
674

739 1
736 /

9-4

Connecticut. .

1.008,897
1.634.353

2,445,894

15,174 |
54.030 1
89,760 {

1904

1910
1914

IOO2
1914

I9IO
1915

419
578

5*08*
1,049

1,020

% \
56 J

399 1
269 /

346 \
339 /

8.4

17-
9

New Jersey..

Ohio

4,654.897
354.398

"1,453 1

1,631 K

1009
I9II

1904
1910
1913
1914

I,3l6

i, no
149

213

407 1
417 /

* 1
13
13 J

15-
17-

Vermont ....

76 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

TABLE II «

Times as

Many

Negroes as

Convicts Received

it the

Whites

State

Population in 1910

Penitentiary During —

Committed

White

Negro

Year White

Negro

in Propor-
tion to

Population
of Each

Race

Nov. i, 1912 1

Arkansas

1,131,026

442,891 •

to [ 606

776

3-4

Oct. 31,1914 J

Alabama ....

1,228,832

908,882

[Sept. i, 1910 ]
to 587

2414

Aug. 31, 1914 J

N.Dakota...

569,855

617

July 1,1908)
to } 217

June 30, 1910 J

1906 513

306 1

1909 560

374

Missouri ....

3,124,932

157,452

1910 543

3°3

K 11 +

1912 660

389

1914 803

378 ,

Maryland . . .

1,062,639

232,250

Nov. 30, 1910 / I29

199

7 +

Texas

3,204,848

[Sept. 1,1908]
690,049 { to [835
[ Oct. 31, 1910 J

1,251

Louisiana ....

941,086

913,874

I9IO 1 202

L 1915 J 257

549 1
654 J

Year Ending \
Oct. 3I.I907/ 4°2

.45 ]

Ohio

4,654,897

111,452

14 —

Year Ending \ ,
,Oct. 31,1910; s°4

169 .

[Two Years ]

W. Virginia..

1,156,817

64,173 •

Ending \ 519
Sept. 30, 1908 J

428

< Both Tables I and II have reference to penetentiaries, no account being taken
of other penal institutions. The calculations are based upon the census of 1910 and
penitentiary reports of the same year, or thereabouts, but some prison, statistics for
other years are also given.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 77

For the Southern States considered, Table I
shows that the number of Negro prisoners around
1910, varied 'according to the State from five plus
times their proportion in Louisiana to eleven times
in Georgia. While in the North, the number
varied from eight times in Connecticut to seven-
teen minus times in Kansas. Thus showing that
the Negro is everywhere many times more criminal
than the white man, and that his criminality is
more pronounced in the North than in the South.

That he is discriminated against by the court, — •
and otherwise, — is sometimes given as a reason
for the great criminal showing of the Negro ; that
for the same kind of crime the Negro gets a much'
longer sentence than a white man, etc. This is \
hardly to be held as against the North, and that it
is true to any appreciable extent in the South is
doubtful, but hard to determine, — absolutely.

As Table I gives the number of prisoners on
hand at a certain time and Table II the number
committed to prison during a period of time,2
other things being equal, it is clear that if the
Negro is discriminated against through the length
of sentence imposed on him by the court, it should
be shown by a smaller number being sent to prison

* Some State penitentiary reports give the number of prisoners
on hand at a certain time, others simply those committed during
a period of time, while a few reports give both items.

78 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

in proportion to the respective population of the
two races in any State than is to be found on hand
at a certain time. For instance, at the Maryland
and the Texan penitentiaries, according to the
above tables, in 1910 the numbers of Negroes on
hand were, respectively, eight-minus times and
eight-plus times their proportion, while those com-
mitted for the same year were seven-plus and sev-
en, respectively. This would seem to indicate that
in neither Maryland nor Texas was there but lit-
tle, if any discrimination against the Negro. But
a comparison of the statistics for Arkansas and
Louisiana seems to show that the Negro is dis-
criminated against in these States. However,
upon further investigation it is found that ninety-
one Negroes were sent to the Louisiana peniten-
tiary in 1911 for murder and manslaughter, and
thirty-two for shooting with intent to kill, as
against thirty white men during the same year for
these crimes. Again, in the Arkansas peniten-
tiary in November, 1912, there were 213 white
and 643 Negro prisoners. Of the whites but 50
had committed homicide, while 2 1 8 of the Negro
prisoners were guilty of the crime.

Moreover, one might naturally expect that the
whites, on account of greater influence, would be
much more likely to secure pardons. It is doubt-
ful if the whites are thus favored to any large ex-

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 79

tent. Between November I, 1910, and October
31, 1912, Arkansas granted pardons to 121 whites
and 86 Negroes, while during the year ending No-
vember 30, 1911, Kentucky pardoned nine white
men and eighteen Negroes. If statistics were
available from all the States it might be rather
conclusively demonstrated that the Negro is dis-
criminated against but little by the courts.

In this connection it may be well also to note
the fact that in Ohio fourteen-minus times as
many as their proportion (according to Table II)
were sent to the penitentiary; in West Virginia
fifteen times, and in North Dakota forty-three
times their proportion.

A comparison of the number of whites and Ne-
groes arrested a year in some of the large cities
is given in the following table :

TABLE III

White,

Negro,

Pitv

Population in 1910

Arrests

One

Arr-ef

v-iiy

White

Negro

Year

White

Negro in

Arrest
in

Every

f 1904

6,602

10,954 1

Atlanta

102,861

5i,978 •

1909

6,241

11,925 \ 16.5

4-5

I 19x5

6,369

10,954 J

f 1905

21,713

12^23 1

Baltimore...

473,387

85,008 i

1909

20,445

11,361 | 23 +

7-5

I 1915

25,108

15,840 J

Buffalo

421,809

1,906

f »9«
1 X9IS

23.083
30,7X1

38*5} I8~

Chicago

2,139,057

46,226

f 1907
1909

53,349
62,864

4.653 \
4.852 [ 34+

10 —

I 1915

105,119

9.508 J

Charleston,

f xoo7

1,559

2 631 }

5. c

27.803

31,069 •

X9XI-
1 19X3

1.734
2,487

2,i&6 \ 16+
'3,x8s J

II —

8o THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

City

TABLE HI (Continued)
Population in 1910 Arrests

White.
One
Arrest
in
Every

Negro,
One
Arrest
in
Every

White

Negro

Year

White

Negro

Detroit

459,926

119,580
1,463.371

645,478
218,623

80,879
78,309
236,128

5,840

4,Si6
85,637
89,672

44,541
5,703

46,749
9,162
94,941

{
{

{

{
{

1909
1910
1915

1907
1910
1915
1910

1903
1910
1913

1904
1910
1913

1911
1912

1904
1007
1910

1908
1910
1911

1908
1910
1915

10,887
13,726
19,539

8,3*4
9,597
13.091

71,825

9,529
15,035
19,486

20,149
29,746
29,166

",332
10,632

2,851
4,356
3,710

3,175

I5,98S
16,371
17,415

7751
976 [

2,121 J

1.663 1
2,083 \
2,211 j

9,507

6,917 1
10,052 >
II,l63 j

S.375 1
8,382
8,009]

434 \
470 J

3.674 1
5,346
5,893j

063)
955 \
979 J

17,430 )
17,632 V
17,716 J

33-5
".5

20 +

16.7

22 —

19-3 +
22 —

26 +
14-3

9+
9-

5 +
13 +
8-

9.6
5-3+

Omaha

Philadelphia.
New Orleans.

St Louis
Providence,

R. I

Richmond,
Va

Wilmington,
Del

Washington,
D.C

Table III shows that for the cities given, one
white person to twenty-one-plus of the white popu-
lation was arrested during 1910 or thereabouts,
but one to eight-minus of the Negro. In the cities
of the North one to twenty-three whites were ar-
rested and one to six Negroes; in the South ex-
cluding Wilmington, Del., and Washington, one
to twenty whites and one to eight for the Ne-
groes. In Detroit: one for every two plus Ne-
groes were arrested.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 81

In this connection, it would seem that a com-
parison of the jail population of a Northern and a
Southern State might be of interest. For this pur-
pose Alabama and Connecticut were selected. In
1910, Alabama had a white population of 1,228,-
832 and 908,282 Negroes while Connecticut had
1,098,897 whites and 15,174 Negroes.8

In both Alabama and Connecticut the ratio of
whites and Negroes sent to jail during the fiscal
year ending September 30, 1914, was about the
same, one white to four Negroes.4 However, in
Alabama one white person to 216 of the white
population as against one to 54 of the Negro,
while in Connecticut, one white person to 100, and
one Negro to 20 was put in jail.

Again, the four counties of Connecticut embrac-
ing the large cities of the State, and having nearly
all the Negro population, sent to jail one white
to 92 of the white population, and one Negro to
24 of the Negro, or nearly four times their pro-
portion.5 But in the other four counties with an

1 My statistics are based on the census of 1910. The Special
Report of the Prison Inspector of Alabama for the year ending
September 30, 1914, and the returns of the county jails of Con~
nccticut for the same period. As the white population of Con-
necticut increased about 225,000 during the previous decade,
while the Negroes slightly decreased, I added 70,000 to the white
population of 1910 to offset the increase of whites during the
three or four years between 1910 and 1914. But as both races
increased in Alabama I use the 1910 census for that State.

* In proportion to their respective population, of course.

1 In order to avoid repetition, unless otherwise indicated, when

82 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

aggregate of 187,058 whites and 1,661 Negroes
the ratio was one to 174 for the whites, and one
to 64 for the Negroes or hardly three times as
many.

Now, taking the three counties of Alabama in
which the cities of Montgomery, Mobile, and Bir-
mingham are located, with an aggregate popu-
lation of 207,295 whites and 182,211 Negroes,
one white person to 90 was sent to jail and one
Negro to 21, or nearly four and one-half times
as many.

Moreover, twenty-two counties with no towns
of more than 1000 population each, and having a
total population of 293,187 whites and 274,533
Negroes one white to 523 was sent to jail and one
Negro to 141, or nearly four Negroes to one
white.

Also, in fourteen counties with cities of 1000 to
10,000 population, and a total population of 205,-
844 whites, and 207,966 Negroes, the races being
almost equal in numbers, one white to 400, and one
Negro to 75 were sent to jail, or six times the
Negro's share.

one white to four Negroes or any such ratio is mentioned, the
meaning is this: I divide the white population of the state by
the white prisoners for the number of white people to each white
prisoner, and divide the Negro population of the State for the
number of Negroes to each Negro prisoner, and then divide
the white prisoners by the Negro to get the ratio of Negro pris-
oners to the white.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 83

Furthermore, six counties consisting almost
wholly of white people, having a total population
of 119,496 whites and 5,670 Negroes, — had in
jail one white to 363 and one Negro to 27, or
twelve Negroes to one white person.

Moreover, eight counties of Alabama, with an
aggregate population of 41,323 white and 185,222
Negroes, about four and one-half times as many
Negroes as whites, one white to 689 were sent to
jail and one Negro to 156, or about four and one-
half times as many.

In studying the jail statistics of Alabama,
whether cities or counties, it soon becomes evi-
dent that the criminality of the Negro increases
as his proportion to the whole population de-
creases ; in other words, the fewer the Negroes in
a given population the more criminal they appear.
An examination of Tables I, II, and III will show
that this is not only true of Alabama, but true,
with scarcely an exception, both North and South.
Negro crime seemingly increases in the cities and
in the North and the West. So does the crime of
the white man increase, although not to the same
extent.

In general, the denser the population the more
likely is friction to occur, or collisions among its

84 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

units. But this is not an adequate explanation for
the increase of Negro crime. Nor can it be ac-
counted for except in small part, by attributing
it to the more complex social environment of the
cities and of the North. However, it is not to be
doubted that the unstable character of the Negro
is easily influenced by the temptations incident to
city life. More important, no doubt, is the as-
sumption that where Negroes are few in com-
parison with the whites, they are more tempted
to commit acts of thievery, robbery, and burglary.
Again, in the cities, officers of the law are on the
watch, consequently more apt to detect and catch
a criminal ; also, where the Negroes are few they
are likely to be held more strictly to the white
man's standard of conduct. However, in some
parts of the South, a white man sometimes may
be arrested when for the same act a Negro would
hardly be bothered. The idea seems to obtain
that for certain things allowance must be made
for the ignorance of the Negro, but no excuse is
made for the white man.

Again, a great deal of the friction between the
two races in the South is caused by the resistance
of Negro criminals to officers of the law. Not
only so, but relatives, friends and other Negroes
as well often attempt to shield the Negro criminal

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 85

in order that he may escape detection and arrest.
This is not exceptional but rather of frequent oc-
currence. It is one of the ways in which the black
man shows himself to be an enemy of law and
order. He does not seem to realize the attitude
in which he places his race in acting thus. Now,
where the Negroes form a large part or the
greater part of the population, it is much easier
for him to aid Negro criminals, and it is often ef-
fectively done. But where there are but few Ne-
groes in the population, it is to that extent more
difficult for the Negro criminal to escape detection
and arrest. These seem to be the main reasons
why Negroes appear more criminal where there
are but few in the population.

In addition to statistics, a few newspaper clip-
pings may aid one more fully to appreciate Negro
criminality.7 It is hardly probable that anywhere
in the United States has the Negro, on the whole,
had better advantages than in Maryland, Virginia,
and Delaware, especially is this true of the Eastern
Shore of Maryland. For this reason the follow-
ing are the more significant:

7 1 made no effort to find these. I give here only a few of
those taken from Baltimore Sun, Baltimore American, and refer
mainly to Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware. What may be
true in these States as regards Negro criminality, is likely to be
found intensified farther south. '

86 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

RESISTING OFFICERS, ETC.

"John E. Goode, a Negro, blew off the top of
his head at Bedford City this morning in prefer-
ence to appearing as a witness against Thomas W.
Preston, the Negro murderer of M. D. Custy, a
saloon-keeper. . . . Goode was present when the
murder was committed. A Negro family named
Davis, relatives of Preston, are said to have
threatened Goode's life, if he testified." 8

A Negro in Chestertown, Md., being tried on
three charges of arson, attacks the officers of the
court:

"Pointing to the Negro, State's Attorney Vick-
ers intimated that he had set fire to the beautiful
buildings on the grounds of the Washington Col-
lege near Chestertown. Suddenly the Negro
made a leap for the States Attorney, but was
stopped by Deputy Sheriff Brown. The enraged
Negro turned and struck the deputy sheriff a stun-
ning blow under the chin. ... It required seven
men to quiet the Negro." 9

"John Carter, the Negro who shot Policeman
Elizabeth Faber and Patrolman George W. Popp

8 Baltimore Sun, Jan. 6, 1910.
* Baltimore News, Oct 20, 1916.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 87

on October 17 on the Edmondson Avenue bridge
when they attempted to arrest him died in the city
jail at 3.10 o'clock yesterday morning." 10

"The final decision in the Brownsville incident
is closed finally and the verdict will give entire
satisfaction to everybody except Hon. Joseph
Foraker of Ohio ; the Negro soldiers who shot up
the Texas town and their comrades who concealed
the guilt of the bloodthirsty marauders." "

"Negro soldiers of the Twenty-fourth United
States Infantry had planned a riot of bloodshed
among the white residents of Houston (Texas)
August 23, two days before the deadly attack
which cost the lives of 15 Houston citizens last
month, according to the report of the Civilian
board of inquiry which reported to the Houston
City Council to-night. . . .

"The committee says that the undisputed and
convincing testimony of witnesses proves that the
Negro soldiers went forth to slay the white popu-
lation indiscriminately: that no Negro was hurt
or molested by them, not one Negro house was
fired into, and that the Negroes were warned be-
forehand ... to stay off the streets." 12

10 Baltimore Sun, Aug. 4, 1915.

11 Ibid., April 8, 1910.
u Ibid., Sept 12, 1917.

88 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

"The police of the Northwestern district are
looking for about 25 Negroes who late Saturday
night attempted to break down the front door of
the boarding house conducted by Miss Mary Ash-
ten at 906 McCulloh street." 13

"Centerville, Md., Jan. 7. The Rev. J. D.
Jackson, colored, pastor of Bethel-African Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, was arrested and placed
in jail here to-day charged with housebreaking and
burglary." 14

"Middletown, Del. — The Rev. Aaron Gibbs, a
Negro preacher, is being held in $500 bail for
court for alleged theft of 280 pounds of meat
from the farm of Daniel Ford, near this place.
The meat was recovered at the home of Gibbs by
Chief of Police, Lee Cochran." . . .

"Another Negro, Arthur Brewington, wanted
for theft of meat and chickens held the whole
Smyrna police force at bay for hours, until his am-
munition gave out. He then retreated escaping
from the force into a deep swamp five miles
away." 15

13 Baltimore American, Feb. 18, 1913.

14 Baltimore Sun, Jan. 8, 1917.
- "Ibid., Feb. 21, 1917.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 89

"Seaford, Del., July 3. — Negroes who live in
and around Bridgeville attempted to take the
town last night. . . . About 10 o'clock at night
the Negroes began firing among themselves, and
Bridgeville being without police protection, was
at the mercy of their revolvers, which were being
fired in rapid succession. The town seemed to be
alive with brawling blacks, and several fights were
started in different parts of the town. At the rail-
road station a large crowd collected and fired shots
in every direction. At a colored church another
crowd got together, firing desperately among them-
selves. The citizens being utterly helpless stayed
in their houses behind locked doors." ie

NEGROES AT PICNICS AND ON EXCURSIONS

"Federalsburg, Md., Aug. 14. John Henry
Lake, a Hurlock Negro, was killed and Frank
Dickerson wounded, perhaps fatally, at a celebra-
tion by Negroes last night." "

"Gettysburg, Pa., Sept. n. — Clara Brown, of
Baltimore, colored, was shot in a brawl here in
the course of an excursion and picnic. Her condi-
tion is critical. Three other persons were also
injured. The picnickers had a gay frolic. It is

"Baltimore Weekly Herald, July 8, 1909.
"Baltimore Sun, Aug. 15, 1914.

90 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

charged that fifty of them attacked a policeman,
and one of them robbed Robert King of Hunters-
town of $35. There were about 7240 excursion-
ists. Gettysburg has made a protest." 1B

"Roanoke, Va., March 29. — .Drunken Negroes
took charge of an excursion train between this
city and Winston-Salem last night and as a conse-
quence Sidney Wood of Winston-Salem is dead at
Martinsville, and two-score other Negroes are
more or less wounded. Knives, razors, and pistols
played prominent parts in the melee. . . . The
train was stopped several times by Negroes pulling
the bell cord, and the train was cut in two several
times, leaving a number of coaches behind with a
second section following. . . . The three coaches
which were cut off were filled with white people.
. . . When the train reached Bassetts, in Henry
County, every Negro in two coaches was appar-
ently in a fight. The screams of the terror-stricken
women added to the excitement." 19

NEGROES AT CAMP MEETING

' 9

"Smyrna, Del., Aug. 9. — As has been the case
yearly for a dozen years there was a fatal shoot-
ing affray at the Negro camp meeting at Friend-

M Cambridge (Md.) Record, Sept. 12, 1913.
18 Baltimore Sun, March 30, 1910.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 91

ship last night. Howard Hollis, a Negro of Clay-
ton, Del., was shot in both legs during the fight.
... It is not known who shot Hollis as bullets
were flying thick and fast during the melee." 20

"Federalsburg, Md., Sept. 6. — Officers are
scouring lower Caroline County to-day for four
Negroes who last night shot up a Negro camp-
meeting at Mount Hope, near this town." 21

"Deputy Sheriff Bruce C. Dean, yesterday after-
noon shot and killed a Negro named Smith at what
is known as Henry's Cross Roads [near Cam-
bridge, Md., negro] campmeeting. . . . There
has always been more or less disorder; in fact, it
is generally known that fights, cutting affrays, and
a general disregard for the law exists." 22 The
Negro who was killed shot at the deputy Sheriff
when he tried to arrest him.

"Salisbury, Md., Aug. 23. — A riot occurred
last night at the Negro campmeeting, on the west
side of the county, and Asbury Waters, 19 years
old, was killed, and Clinton Gosless was shot
through his jaw-bone and his chin carried away by
a bullet.

"Baltimore Sun, Aug. 10, 1915.
" Ibid., Sept 7, 1915.
"Cambridge (Md.) Record, Aug. 25, 1913.

92 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

"Just at the height of the services one of the
local preachers, was raising his hands in prayer,
a colored woman slipped into the kneeling crowd
and pulled a pistol from her dress folds and fired
a bullet into his heart. Waters pitched forward
and died instantly. . . . Immediately after, Sallie
Milburn whipped a pistol from her pocket and
blazed away at Clinton Gosless, the bullet enter-
ing his jaw. Gosless is in a very serious condition
with little hope of his recovery."

Both these accounts were in the same issue of
the Cambridge (Md.) Record, but the camps
were in adjoining counties.

Indeed, Negro camp meetings and bush meet-
ings had become so numerous, — occupied such a
large part of the Negroes' time during summer,
caused so much lawlessness among them ; and con-
sequently so much expense to the whites, that the
Maryland Legislature in 1916 passed a law evi-
dently directed against them, which in part is as
follows :

"It shall be unlawful for any person, persons,
association or organization of any kind whatever
to hold any camp meeting or bush meeting within
the limits of Talbot, Caroline, Dorchester, Somer-

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 93

set, Kent, and Worcester Counties without first
making application in writing at least fifteen days
prior to the date of such camp meeting or bush
meeting therein. That such application for a per-
mit as aforesaid, shall be accompanied by a peti-
tion in writing signed by at least twenty-five tax
payers, each of whom shall reside within three
miles of the place where such camp meeting is
to be held, and each petition shall have annexed
thereto as a part thereof an affidavit to the effect
that each of the said petitioners are bona fide tax
payers and of their residences within three miles
of said place of such proposed meeting. And
whenever the County Commissioners of any of the
respective counties shall have any reasonable
grounds that any lawlessness or disorder will oc-
cur, at said camp meeting or bush meeting, they
shall refuse to grant such permit, and if, after is-
suing any permit to hold any camp meeting or
bush meeting there shall be lawlessness or disorder
reported to said County Commissioners, it shall
be the duty of said officials to investigate or have
investigated by the Sheriff or other officer of said
county, the matter, and upon proof of said law-
lessness or disorder they shall forthwith revoke
said permit and it shall be the duty of the Sheriff,
or other officer of the respective Counties to en-
force the provisions of this act."

94 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

In about the same spirit and for the same pur-
pose, the reduction of Negro crime, a few years
ago, the city of Mobile, Alabama, passed an ordi-
nance, an account of which is taken from a Balti-
more periodical: 23

"The police department of Mobile, Ala., has
established a curfew law for Negroes. Com-
mencing on the night of July 21, the law provides
that all Negroes must be in bed at their homes by
ten o'clock or be subject to arrest. Any caught
wandering at large after that hour will be locked
up. This action is taken because there is said to
be an epidemic of hold-ups perpetrated by the Ne-
groes. If such a law was enforced in Baltimore
it would decrease the alley fights ninety-five per
cent."

NEGRO IMMORALITY

In connection with Negro criminality it seems
pertinent to say something of Negro immorality.
Two of the Negro's most prominent character-
istics are the utter lack of chastity and complete
ignorance of veracity.

The Negro's sexual laxity, considered so im-
moral or even criminal in the white man's civil-
ization, may have been all but a virtue in the

* Methodist Protestant, July 28, 1909.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 95

habitat of his origin. There nature developed in
him intense sexual passions to offset his high death
rate. Then, too, the economic influences which
fostered a family life among other peoples were
mostly lacking in tropical Africa as nature pro-
vided abundantly without effort on the part of
man.

Although the regulations adopted by masters
for the control of the Negroes during slavery times
may have served as a check upon their natural
sexual propensities, however, since emancipation »
they have been under no such restraint and as a
consequence they have possibly almost reverted to
what must have been their primitive promiscuity.
Huffman says that in 1894 more than one-fourth
of the colored births in the city of Washington
were illegitimate. Many prominent Negroes ad-
mit that above ninety per cent of both sexes are
unchaste. A negro may be a pillar in the church
and at the same time the father of a dozen ille-
gitimate children by as many mothers.

Another Negro failing is lying. One can be-
lieve neither layman nor minister, neither criminal
nor saint among them. One may occasionally find
a truthful Negro, — just as he may find a virtuous
or an honest one. Undoubtedly both honest and
truthful was the Negro, — an elder in the church, —
who refused to partake of the Lord's Supper, be-

96 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

cause, as he said, the flour the bread was made of
had been stolen.

Some benevolently-inclined men and many re-
ligious zealots thought that religion and educa-
tion was the "Open Sesame" by means of which
the "salvation" of the Negro was to come. So
they sent him money to build churches and to
found great schools. Many, however, are now
finding that though the Negro may have religion
he has no morality; and that too often his educa-
tion makes him unwilling to do what he can do
and wish to do that for which he is unfitted or for
which there is no demand. At present who can
tell whether he is going forward or backward.
Some one has said that there is going on side by
side in the Negro people a minimum of progress
with a maximum of regress.

However, the Negro takes great pride in his
church, and in his way is intensely religious. The
late Booker T. Washington said:

"Of these millions of black people there is only
a very small percentage that does not have formal
or informal connection with some church."

It is, indeed, likely that more than one-half of
the male Negro adults are actual members of
church, while not more than one in four or five

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 97

white male adults have such connection. Notwith-
standing such a showing, religion does not seem to
have any controlling influence over the life and
character of the Negro.

Nevertheless, the Negro enjoys his religion,
for he is an emotional animal. It is the emo-
tional element in religion that appeals to him and
makes his face to shine. The promise of never-
ending pleasure in a world to come may be but
faintly comprehended by him, but the fear of a
far off punishment deters him but little from crime.
He is the optimist of the human race, and lives in
the eternal present. He has no sorrows from the
past, and no care except for the immediate future.
He keeps without effort or intention two injunc-
tions of Scripture: "Visit the sick," and "have
no care for to-morrow."

He goes to camp meetings or revivals, sings, ' *
prays, and shouts until the small hours of the
night. He may think he thus pays the Lord His
due, even though the next day, if he works at all,
he sleeps on the plow-handle, or with half-closed
eyes cuts up the tobacco or. the cotton.

However, he may be free from the painful ne-
cessity to work the next day, if his wife or mother
should have just returned from a white neighbor
with an "apronful," even if he did not visit some

98 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

tempting smoke-house or hen-roost on the way
home from his religious revelry.

How can Negro criminality and immorality be
lessened? The answer is not easy, and what fol-
lows is merely suggestive. Up to the present,
what little the Negro has accomplished, in most
part has been due to the white blood he has re-
ceived, or to white direction and sympathy. The
Negro is woefully lacking in initiative and per-
sistence. He would be greatly benefited by some
sort of probationary oversight. If the Filipinos
are not fit for self-government collectively, much
less the Negro individually. A great part of them
are no more fit to profit by their freedom than
so many children. Nothing so promotes health
of body and strength of character as regular and
persistent industry. To the Negro should be
preached the "gospel of salvation" through work.
Somehow get him to work six days in the week,
instead of working two and loafing four, as many
now do. Industrial schools such as Hampton and
Tuskegee meet a great need but they touch but
few. "

If the States had the power to train or even to
enforce habits of industry and thrift upon the
shiftless, idle, and vicious Negroes it would un-
doubtedly result in measureless benefit to both
white and black. Liberty should not be made

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 99

a "fetish." If the Negro has rights that should
not be abridged, so have the white people rights
and lives that should not be endangered. The
law-abiding many have the right to protection
from the criminal few — actual or incipient. With
the adoption of some such scheme the Negro might
gradually cease to be a menace to the white race.
Again, so often the Negro leaders of the Negro
race are merely blind leaders of the blind, — en-
tirely lacking in breadth of view, often discour-
aging in their race what they should encourage
and encouraging what they should discourage as
the following quotation may indicate:

' 'Make lynching a Federal crime, and stop
turning the murderers over to local authorities
who are in sympathy with them,' demanded Dr.
W. T. Vernon, of Memphis, Tenn., before 15,-
ooo Negroes, who were celebrating the twenty-
fifth quadrennial Conference of the African M. E.
Church in Convention Hall, Broad street and Al-
legheny Avenue, yesterday." 24

Such talk as this serves to promote Negro
crime. If instead of Negro leaders writing ar-
ticles for magazines and Negro papers, in ser-
mons in Negro churches, and in addresses before

"Philadelphia Record, May 8, 1916.

ioo THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

Negro conventions denouncing the whites for pro-
tecting themselves against Negro crime in their
own way, could realize that it is not so much the
black skin as what sort of man the black skin
covers, that counts, would demonstrate to their
black brothers that they themselves are the sin-
ners rather than the sinned against, that they are
the transgressors rather than otherwise, they
might accomplish much toward lessening Negro
crime. If such leaders would use their influence
to the utmost to make their race as law-abiding
as the whites, and should bring it about, it is
hardly likely that then they would need to com-
plain that their race is imposed upon. But if they
were, at least, there would be more force in their
complaint. But so long as the Negro race com-
mits its present amount of crime, the complaint
against unfair treatment is more than childish.

CHAPTER V

SEGREGATION OF THE NEGRO

IT is hardly to be questioned that since the Civil
War the white man and the Negro have been
drawing farther and farther apart. Religious
teachers, political adventurers, and fortune hunt-
ers gave the first great impetus to the movement.
The teachers, however, misguided, may have been
sincere in their efforts to benefit the Negro ; but the
carpet-baggers had in mind only personal aggran-
dizement.

This political separation of the Negroes from
the Southern whites was the entering wedge that
split asunder the ties that had bound the two races
together. Otherwise the Negroes might have di-
vided with the whites between two or more politi-
cal parties. This would have resulted greatly to
their advantage for each party would have bid
for their vote.

Upon the passing of the carpet-bag administra-
tions, however, the Negroes lost most of their po-
litical importance. Since then it has been further

101

102 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

reduced until it is now almost a negligible quan-
tity.

During the Reconstruction period, the attitude
of the Negroes served to alienate their former
masters, who undoubtedly would have otherwise
been their best friends. Between most of the Ne-
groes and the poor whites of the South, there had
always existed a feeling of mutual dislike if not
contempt. After the War great numbers of the
latter secured wealth and influence. Their dislike
of the Negro, however, has increased rather than
abated.

Thus, the Negroes began to feel the lack of
that sympathy, consideration, and direction from
the whites to which they had been accustomed.
Therefore, whether consciously or unconsciously,
they turned to leaders of their own color more
readily, and this has gradually developed a feeling
of race solidarity. However, this should not be
an unmixed evil.

Again, in many parts of the South, the indus-
trial development of the past thirty years has fur-
thered segregation in that section by drawing the
whites to the towns and cities. But Negroes have
also turned to the cities in great numbers notwith-
standing the fact that the industrial enterprises of
the cities usually hold out but little if any induce-
ments to such migration. This has given rise to

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 103

the agitation for the segregation of the races in
the cities whether voluntary or by legal enactment.
While this is more pronounced in the South it has
also spread to the North and West.

One of the most noteworthy examples of volun-
tary segregation is to be found in New York City:

"In one district of New York City a Negro
population equal in numbers to the inhabitants of
Dallas, Texas, or Springfield, Mass., lives, works,
and pursues its ideals almost as a separate entity
from the great surrounding metropolis. Here the
Negro merchants ply their trade; Negro profes-
sional men follow their various vocations; their
children are educated; the poor, sick, and the or-
phan of their race is cared for; churches, news-
papers, and books flourish heedless of those out-
side this Negro community who resent its presence
in a white city." *

Indeed, in many parts of the country the Ne-
groes have separated themselves from the whites
by founding small communities of their own. In
almost any state, villages and towns populated
and governed almost exclusively by Negroes may
be found. A few of the more important are:
Buxton, Iowa, 1000 whites and 4000 Negroes;

1 The Outlook, Dec. 23, 1914.

io4 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

Brooklyn, Illinois, 1600 Negroes; Balor, Okla-
homa, 3000; Plateau, Alabama, 1500; Mound
Bayou, Mississippi, yoo.2

In addition, there are almost an unlimited num-
ber of what may be termed Negro settlements
scattered over the country. Such is Petersburg,
on a railroad two miles from Hurlock, Maryland,
which may serve as an example. It consists of
about twenty-five houses and lots or little farms,
altogether embracing about one hundred acres.
These are mostly owned by the Negroes who live
on them. They bought these little tracts several
years ago when the land was considered almost
worthless as it was so sandy and poor. The men
till their lots and occasionally work by the day
for some of the surrounding white farmers. In
season, the women and children and some of the
men as well go elsewhere to pick berries. In the
late summer all have employment at home for
about two months furnished by a white cannery,
near. Altogether it seems to be a very contented
community. Each Negro is his own boss and can
work when it suits him and stop when he pleases.
To make such a living as satisfies him he need
work scarcely half of his time. This just suits
Negro inclinations and consequently Petersburg
is a little paradise for the Negro.

""Negro Year Book," 1914-1915.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 105

However, the segregation of the Negro is not
yet universal. In some towns and cities as well
both North and South they are more or less scat-
tered. In the City of Washington they are found
practically everywhere. In most cities they oc-
cupy the most undesirable parts — such as any low
muddy places or narrow alleys. In some small
cities of the South, while there may be a well de-
fined Negro section, nearly every well-to-do fam-
ily has a Negro servant family in the back yard.
La Grange, Georgia, is an example.

But in the greater number of towns and cities
the Negro section and the white section have been
clearly defined for years. Cambridge, Maryland,
— a city of about 5000 whites and 2000 Ne-
groes,— is of that sort. All the Negroes live in
the Southwest section except two or three fami-
lies that live in a kind of alley near the bridge
which connects East Cambridge with the main
part of the city. One sees but few Negroes on
any white street, not even on the main business
street except Saturdays when they do their shop-
ping. But on the street just west of the main
business street and parallel with it, the business
street of the Negro section, only a few whites are
ever to be seen but it is always black with Negroes.
Here are Negro grocery stores, a drug store, bar-
ber shops, theater, schools, and churches. Very

io6 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

few mulattoes are in evidence for the Negroes are
nearly all of pure blood. One never hears of any
serious trouble between the Negroes and whites
of Cambridge for they live in comparative har-
mony with one another. At East New Market in
the same county, a railroad separates the white
from the Negro section of the town, while at
Vienna, eleven miles distant, the Negro section is
several hundred yards from the white part of the
town.

Although Negroes constitute about one-third
of the population of the Eastern Shore of Mary-
land, they have not become sufficiently numerous
as farmers as to cause much injury to farm land
or to farming interests, whether by careless and
indifferent farming or by making the country dis-
tricts undesirable to white people as places of
residence. Most of the Negroes in the country
districts are used by the white farmers as farm
hands. Negroes are seldom able to rent the better
grade farms while those owned by them are usual-
ly small and poor. As a consequence most of the
land on the Eastern Shore is in a high state of
cultivation and the farmers prosperous and con-
tented.

In most parts of the farther South, however,,
except Texas and Oklahoma, and the Piedmont
and mountain sections, the whites have allowed the

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 107

Negroes to gain such a foothold in the country
districts that they are now the greatest obstacles to
agricultural progress. The South is just begin-
ning to realize the true condition of things.

Indeed, already in North Carolina an agita-
tion has begun for the segregation of the Negro
in the rural districts. If this could be accom-
plished in all parts of the South it would be a
wonderful boon to that section. Not only would
it to a great extent free the white women from
fear of attack by Negroes but this would serve
to attract to the South thrifty and ambitious farm-
ers from other parts of the country. A more satis-
factory social life could be developed in the rural
districts. Adequate schools and churches could
better be maintained, not only for the white race
but for the Negroes as well. As a consequence
both races would be benefited.

With the exception of the establishment in the
South of separate schools for the whites and the
Negroes, only in comparatively recent years has
segregation been brought about by law. More
than twenty years ago, however, a few Southern
States had laws providing for segregation in rail-
road travel and now almost every Southern State
has such a law. In some, Maryland for example,
the law also applies to passenger steamboats. A
certain section of the boat is given to the Negroes.

io8 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

Both races have now become so accustomed to
these laws that they are generally taken as a mat-
ter of course.

Lately many Southern cities have passed ordi-
nances extending the principle of segregation in
travel, to street cars. Mobile, Alabama, how-
ever, as early as 1902 had such an ordinance in
force. As it was one of the first, and but slightly
different from those in force in other cities, the
main part is quoted here, as follows:

"All persons or corporations, operating street
railroads in the city of Mobile or within its police
jurisdiction shall provide seats for the white peo-
ple and Negroes when there are white people and
Negroes on the same car by requiring the conduc-
tor or other employe in charge of the car or cars
to assign to passengers to seats in all the cars, or
when the car is divided into two compartments in
each compartment, in such manner as to separate
the white people from the Negroes, by seating
the white people in the front seats and the Ne-
groes in the rear as they enter the car, but in the
event such order of seating might cause inconveni-
ence to those who are already properly seated, the
conductor or other employee, in charge of the car,
may use his discretion in seating passengers, but
in such manner that no white person and Negro

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 109

must be placed, or seated, in the same section, or
compartment arranged for two passengers: Pro-
vided, That Negro nurses having in charge white
children, or sick or infirm white persons, may be
assigned to seats among the white people." 8

The conductor is also given the authority of
police officer to enforce the law.

The form of segregation which is receiving most
attention in the South at present, however, is the
effort of various cities, — great and small, — to pro-
vide by law, for (as nearly as possible) distinct
residential sections for the two races. This ques-
tion was first agitated in Baltimore 'in 1809. A
segregation law was passed but it was soon pro-
nounced invalid by the courts. In 1911, another
such ordinance was put in force but it, too, was
declared void, first by the Criminal Court of Balti-
more, and later by the Maryland Court of Ap-
peals. The latter Court, however, maintained
that the city has the right to pass a segregation
law. I quote the following words of the court:

"This Court is of the opinion that the Mayor
and City Council of Baltimore may, in the exer-
cise of its police power, validly pass an ordinance
for the segregation of the white and colored races

'Code of Mobile, 1907, p. 330.

no THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

without conflicting with the Constitution of the
United States or of the State of Maryland." 4

Very soon after this, another ordinance was
passed. It has now been in operation about four
years ( 1917) . However, the Maryland Court of
Appeals is holding a case sub curia, awaiting a de-
cision of the United States Supreme Court in a
case testing the validity of the segregation law of
Louisville.4a

In 1912 the Virginia Legislature enacted a law
for the purpose, it seems, of encouraging the cities
and towns of that State to segregate the whites
and the Negroes. Richmond, however, had al-
ready passed a segregation ordinance in 1911. It
is as follows:

"That it shall be unlawful for any white per-
son to occupy as a residence or to establish and
maintain as a place of public assembly, any house
upon any street or alley between two adjacent
streets in which a greater number of houses are
occupied as residences by colored people than are
occupied as residences by white people.

"That it shall be unlawful for any colored per-
son to occupy as a residence or to establish and
maintain as a place of public assembly any house

* Baltimore Sun, Aug. 6, 1913.

*a Found void by U. S. Supreme Court, Nov. 5, 1917.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 111

upon any street or alley between two adjacent
streets on which a greater number of houses are
occupied as residences by white people than are
occupied as residences by colored people.

"That no person shall construct or locate on
any block or square on which there is at that time
no residence any house or other building intended
to be used as a residence without declaring in his
application for a permit to build whether the house
or building so to be constructed is designed to be
occupied by white or colored people, and the Build-
ing Inspector of the city of Richmond shall not is-
sue any permit in such case unless the applicant
complies with the provisions of this section.

"That nothing in this ordinance shall affect the
location of residences made previous to the ap-
proval of this ordinance, and nothing herein shall
be so construed as to prevent the occupation of
residences by white or colored servants or em-
ployes on the square or block on which they are
so employed.

"Every person, either by himself or through his
agent, violating, or any agent for another violating
any one or more of the provisions of this ordinance
shall be liable to a fine of not less than $100 nor
more than $200, recoverable before the police jus-
tice of the city of Richmond, and, in the discre-
tion of the police justice, such person may, in addi-

ii2 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

tion thereto, be confined in the city jail not less
than 30 nor more than 90 days." 5

Some of the principal reasons for the demand
for the segregation of the two races in towns and
cities are given in the Preamble to the Virginia law
of 1912 as follows:

"Whereas the preservation of the public mor-
als, public health, and public order, in the cities
and towns of this Commonwealth is endangered
by the residence of white and colored people in
close proximity to one another: therefore, be it
enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia,"
etc.

The effect upon public order of the "close
proximity" of the two races may best be shown
by the following quotations :

"Having occasion to ride on the Guilford Ave-
nue car last week, going down town, there were 10
or 12 Negro men in their dirty working clothes.
On one seat there were two of them ; the other 8
or 10 had each of them a separate bench. Refined
handsomely dressed women entering the car had
to stand or sit beside one of these dirty Negroes.

' Baltimore Sun, Aug. 8, 1913.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 113

I am not an enemy to the race. I believe they
should have as good accommodations as we have,
but they should be to themselves." 6

"I prefer rubbing elbows with them (Negro
guano factory laborers) to riding with the so-
called respectable Negroes on the Preston Street
and other cross-town lines. On the Preston street
line in particular conditions have become so un-
bearable that the writer, who formerly used this
line to reach his place of business, has been obliged
to adopt a more circuitous route, which takes fully
twice as long.

"On this line respectable white people and white
women especially, are subjected to every species
of affront and insult, which they cannot resent
without risk of being drawn into a dispute, in
which no decent person cares to be involved. The
Negroes realize this and it emboldens them still
further." 7

"Residents in the 1300 block, Myrtle Avenue
were greatly excited yesterday by a colored family
moving into 1334 during the morning. The block
is occupied by white people and this is the first in-
trusion by Negroes." 8

"Letter to Baltimore Sun, March n, 1914.

T Ibid., Aug. 1 8, 1913.

9 Baltimore Sun, Aug. 22, 1913.

ii4 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

"Angered because a colored family had moved
into house No. 128 Patapsco Avenue, a crowd of
about 100 residents of Pimplico gathered before
the dwelling last night and battered it with sticks
and stones until every window pane was smashed,
valuable chandeliers demolished and plaster
knocked in great clouds from the walls." 9

"About 150 determined white men gathered
early yesterday evening at a house on Mattfeld
Avenue, near Falls road, and camped on the
grounds until a Negro family of two men and
three women and two children living in the house
left. . . . After the Negroes had found a place
the men scattered. . . . No violence or cruelty
was meant toward the Negro family, but that the
neighborhood was determined to show that it was
white and meant to stay white." 10

Indeed, objections are often made to the loca-
tion of Negro churches, schools or Y. M. C. A.'s
in or near white neighborhoods. The following
newspaper headings may be sufficient to indicate
the situation :

"Relay [Md.] Objects to Negro College," "
"Mount Washington Up in Arms Over the Plan

9 Baltimore American, Sept. 21, 1911.

10 Baltimore Sun, May 19, 1916.
u Ibid., January 13, 1914.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 115

to Locate Morgan College [Negro] There," 12
"Lafayette Square Protests Against Putting a
Colored School On Its Borders." 18

Nor is this attitude toward the Negro confined
to the South. If the North had as many Negroes
in proportion to its population as the South, the
feeling there would be just as acute. The follow-
ing quotations so indicate :

"Boston, March 23. — Refusing to associate
with Dr. Melissa Thompson, a Negress of North
Carolina, who has been appointed a physician in
the maternity department of the New England
Hospital for Women and Children in Roxbury,
five young white women doctors sent in their resig-
nation." 14

"Boston, Sept. 8. — Here where years ago a
mob of exclusive Back Bay residents stormed the
old courthouse to free a Negro from his Southern
master, descendants of the Back Bay rescuers to-
day are fighting against serving as election super-
visors with a Negro, whose appointment became
known Wednesday." 1B

"Baltimore Sun, August 26, 1913.
" Ibid., Aug. 14, 1915.
" Ibid., March 24, 1911.
"Baltimore American, Sept. 9, 1911.

n6 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

"Ithaca, N. Y., March 28. — The petition of
more than 200 women in Cornell University
against the admission of [Negro] women into the
only dormitory in the University has been for-
warded to President Schurman." 16

"New York, July 2. — Twenty teachers, about
half the staff at Public School No. 125, in Wooster
Street, Manhattan — have applied for transfers,
owing to the assignment by the Board of Educa-
tion of William L. Burkley (mulatto) as head of
the school." 17

"Burlington, Vermont, dislikes the idea of hav-
ing the Tenth Cavalry at Fort Ethan Allen. The
Tenth happens to be a colored regiment and the
prospect of having 1200 Negro soldiers within
three miles of the city is greatly exciting many of
the people of Burlington." 18

"Akron, Ohio, August 13. — A serious race riot
may take place if notices posted on the homes of
North Side Negroes last night by members of a
citizens' 'Vigilance league' in that section of the
city, who have warned the Negroes that unless

16 Washington Times, March, 28, 1911.

"Baltimore Sun, July 3, 1909.

" Democrat and News, Cambridge, Md., Sept. 3, 1909.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 117

they sell their property and leave that section of
the city, they will be forcibly evicted from their
homes, which are also threatened with destruction.

"Members of the 'Vigilance league' declare to-
day that the Negroes are practicing a form of
.blackmail by buying property in the fashionable
residence district of North Hill, which they oc-
cupy until their white neighbors pay an exorbitant
price for their property to get rid of them.

"They say several instances of this kind have
been recorded recently and feeling against the Ne-
groes reached a high pitch at a secret meeting held
last night. The public have taken every precau-
tion to guard against a serious outbreak.

"The Negroes have been given one week in
which to sell their property and leave that section
of the city by the 'Vigilance league.' " 19

"Bellville, 111., Oct. 7. — Ten of the 13 Negroes
who have been on trial here for a week, charged
with the murder of Detective Samuel Coppedge
on the morning of July 2, which precipitated the
East St. Louis, 111., race riots were convicted to-
day and sentenced to 14 years in the penitentiary.
Three were acquitted." 20

19 Baltimore American, Aug. 14, 1913.
"The Philadelphia Record, Oct. 8, 1917.

n8 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

"York, Pa., Aug. 20. — Dr. George W. Bowles,
a Negro physician, has started a movement here
for the segregation of his race. Bowles believes
that Negroes would be better taken care of if in
one part of the town. Now the blacks are housed
in the alleys and few are permitted to rent houses
on the main streets." 21

A few such Negro leaders as Dr. Bowles, just
mentioned, seem to appreciate the advantages of
segregation for the Negro, and for both races.
Others, however, object to segregation because to
their minds, it is a denial of social equality with
the white race, or that they are deprived of the
best living conditions. If the Negro had the
proper race pride he would welcome the oppor-
tunity to live among his own race. He would de-
light in the companionship of those of his kind.
Among the Negroes would develop grades of so-
ciety as among white people. Indeed, already in
Baltimore Druid Hill Avenue and other streets
have become a sort of aristocratic section for the
Negroes. Those who have money have the op-
portunity to live among their own race in the best
manner possible.

Other races are so proud of their traditional
grandeur or present attainments as to claim su-

* Baltimore Sun, Aug. 21, 1913.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 119

periority and exclusiveness. But the Negro has
such little race pride that were it possible every
Negro man would have a white wife and every
Negro woman a white husband. Many Negro
leaders are so lacking in race esteem as to seize
every opportunity to force themselves into the
society of other races. And although they possess
a strong sense of their rights they are usually
found unmindful of attendant obligations.

The great mass of Negroes, however, soon ac-
commodate themselves to segregation regulations,
whether for schools, railways, or for the residen-
tial sections of cities and seem to care but little
about the question of equality. It is only when
stirred up by the unwise of their own race, or by
some sentimental, if well-meaning, but shallow-
thinking whites, who have lived far removed from
association with Negroes, that they manifest much
interest in such matters.

In association among races, unless there is some
strong cementing influence to counteract it, fric-
tion is likely to occur between them in proportion
to racial difference. And so long as racial antip-
athy shall exist — and practical minded men see
no signs of an end of it in the near future — regu-
lations for the promotion of harmony should be
encouraged by both whites and blacks.

It would be almost as reasonable to expect an

120 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

idiot and a genius to find a common ground of
association as to expect it of a white man and a
Negro. For in both races there is a failure to
recognize that consciousness of kind which is the
basis of all pleasant association. Indeed, even
the subdivisions of the white race show a strong
preference each for those of his own division. An
Italian prefers to associate with an Italian; a Ger-
man, with Germans; and a Jew, with Jews.

So, in the last analysis, the most potent reason
for the segregation of the whites and the Negroes
is their unlikeness. For they are antipodal in the
extreme: the nadir and zenith of peoples. This
dissimilarity cannot be removed by soap and
water, time, charity, education, or culture. After
all these it will yet remain.

Another reason for segregation is the criminal-
ity and immorality of the Negro race. Even if it
would benefit a few Negroes or satisfy their van-
ity to travel with whites or to live on the same
street with them is little reason why the comfort,
property values, health and morals of the whites
should be endangered thereby. The better ele-
ments of society have rights as well as the worst
and the majority should receive consideration as
well as the minority. It is in strict accord with
sound ethical principles that laws should aim to
level up rather than to level down.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 121

Again, the susceptibility of the Negro to dis-
ease is another very potent reason for segrega-
tion laws. The Negro's manner of living since
his emancipation — irregular in every way, some-
times half-starved — together with their immoral
habits, have so weakened the constitutions of a
great part of them that they easily become victims
to disease.

According to the Washington Post (March 3,
1917) of 20,000 Negroes who had lately arrived
in Philadelphia from the South 1000 were ill with
pneumonia and tuberculosis, of whom 700 were
said to be dying.

The "Negro Year Book" for 1914-15 makes
the statement that 450,000 Negroes in the South
are seriously ill all the time, and that 600,000 of
the present Negro population will die of tuber-
culosis. When one recalls that thirty-five years
ago tuberculosis among Negroes was scarcely
heard of, he may the better appreciate the full
force of the above statement in regard to tuber-
culosis among Negroes.

In a letter calling a conference in Baltimore to
consider better housing conditions for the Negro,
Mayor Preston said :

"The insanitary housing of many of our color*
ed people and the congestion within the area in

122 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

which they reside are developing breeding for dis-
ease. The condition is a serious menace to the
general health of the city. It threatens to become
in the future a matter of such gravity as to chal-
lenge the thoughtful consideration of our entire
community. . . .

"The high death rate in Baltimore is occa-
sioned by the high mortality among the colored
people. The death rate from tuberculosis alone
is three and a half colored to one white." 22

The Health Department, in a bulletin issued
about the same time, showed that the death-rate
per thousand of the Negro population of Balti-
more was 33.96, while that of the white popula-
tion was but 16.91. What is true of Baltimore is
more or less true elsewhere.

It is needless to consider other reasons for
segregation laws, the three given; viz., to lessen
friction, to check criminality and immorality, and
to prevent the spread of disease, are sufficient war-
rant for segregation laws of whatever kind.

"Baltimore Sun, Feb. 20, 1917.

CHAPTER VI

NEGRO WEALTH OR POVERTY, WHICH?

THE statement sometimes made that in 1865
the Negro was a landless and penniless race is far
from the truth. Some slaves had property that
they had secured through opportunities given them
by their owners. No doubt free Negroes secured
at least a small share of the public domain. Many
slaves upon being given freedom by benevolent
masters, were also given money or property at the
same time.

Cases of this sort were frequent during slavery
times. Several such instances are given in the
Staunton (Va.) Democrat during 1846-1848.
Such cases as the following were not uncommon :

"A Negro man named Lerr; age about 35
years; a slave for life $700." "A negro man
named Jacob; age about 24; a slave from life —
$600." l

1 Baltimore Sun, Dec. 18, 1909.
123

124 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

These were two items in an inventory of the
estate Phillip B. Saddler returned to the Orphans'
Court of Baltimore in 1860.

Even The Liberator mentions some cases of
the kind. For example:

A man in Kentucky willed to his slaves, whom
he made free, horses, wagons, farming imple-
ments, and $4,000. Another, also in Kentucky,
freed a Negro family of four, purchased an ex-
cellent farm for them, paying fifty dollars an acre,
and in addition gave them a wagon, a pair of
mules and a quantity of provisions. These are
given merely as examples of what was constantly
taking place.2

Indeed, there were many rich free Negroes in
the South at the time of the Civil War. Although
there is abundant evidence that the free Negroes,
as a rule, were an indolent, thriftless, and even
vicious class, some of them, no doubt on account
of the reinforcement of white blood in their veins,
were industrious and prosperous.

At Charleston, S. C., alone in 1860, there were
355 free Negroes who paid taxes.8 Of these 226
owned real estate valued at $1,000 or more, each.

" Liberator, Jan. 20, 1854, and Nov. 9, 1860.
'Ibid., May n, 1860; E. Collins, "Memories of the South-
ern States," p. 44.

r.J

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 125

Some of them had $10,000 to $40,000 worth of
property. Altogether they had almost $ i ,000,000
worth.

In Louisiana also, as might be expected, there
were many wealthy free Negroes. Most of these
were descended from the French and the Spanish
planters and their Negro slaves. One free Ne-
gro family of Louisiana was said to be the richest
Negro family in the United States before the War,
having property valued at several hundred thou-
sand dollars.4 Frederick Law Olmsted, who trav-
eled through the State about 1855, was told that
some of the free Negroes owned property worth
$400,000 or $500,000, which included some of
the best sugar and cotton plantations. Indeed, all
over the country might have been found free Ne-
groes with more or less property. The greater
part of it, no doubt, had been given them by white
masters or white relatives.

In reference to the amount of property held by
Negroes at the time of the Civil War, William H.
Thomas, a Negro writer, says:

"We have no trustworthy data by which to
measure the wealth of those residing in the North,
though it is known to have been considerable;

* Liberator, March 18, 1859. Also, Olmsted, "Seaboard Slave
States," pp. 633-640.

126 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

but in the South, where separate racial statistics
were kept, the value of property owned by free
Negroes was between $35,000,000 and $40,000,-
ooo."

In 1860, there were in the neighborhood of
250,000 free Negroes in the South and around
225,000 in the North. Then, if the free Negroes
of the South had nearly $40,000,000 it would
seem a fair estimate that in both sections the free
Negroes had at least $60,000,000. Taking this
for granted, as money at six per cent compounded,
annually, doubles every twelve and one-half years,
the $60,000,000 at interest until the present
(1917) would have amounted to about $960,-
000,000. If the 10,000,000 Negroes of the coun-
try at present had as large amount of property in
proportion, as the less than 500,000 free Negroes
of 1860, they would be worth more than $1,200,-
000,000.

However, in 1903, it was estimated by a com-
mittee of the American Economic Association that
all the taxable property in the United States own-
ed by Negroes in 1900 amounted to only $300,-
000,000. The $60,000,000 at six per cent would
have amounted to about $400,000,000 by that
time.

In 1913, in an address before the Negro Busi-

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 127

ness League which met in Philadelphia, Booker
T. Washington said that Negroes pay taxes on
$700,000,000 worth of property. Many other
students of the Negro question both black and
white have placed about the same estimate upon
Negro holdings. Even if true, the amount would
be about $200,000,000 less than the $60,000,000
at interest to the same time.

Now, assuming that Negroes actually owned
$700,000,000 worth of property in 1913, what
does it signify? The value of all property in the
United States is now estimated at almost
$250,000,000,000. Now, suppose that it was
$210,000,000,000 in 1913, this would be just
three hundred times the estimated value of Negro
property at the time. In other words, 10,000,000
negroes owned one three-hundredth as much as
90,000,000 whites. Thus one white man on an
average would have as much as thirty-two Ne-i
groes.

Even were it true that the Negro race began
with nothing after the War, likely thousands of
white men who became millionaires had just such
a start. One such white man, especially, is, no
doubt, worth as much as the 10,000,000 Negroes
claim to be, even though he has given to charity
almost half as much more.

Indeed, the $700,000,000 in question is but lit-

128 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

tie more than two-thirds as much as the whites in
the United States, according to the Chicago Trib-
une,* gave to charity during 1916. Again, the
$700,000,000 lacks nearly $200,000,000 of being
equal to the taxable basis of Baltimore. It would
be difficult to secure statistics in reference to the
matter, but there could be little doubt that the
first immigrants to the United States after the
Civil War, including the descendents of such to
the number of 10,000,000, — immigrants who
came with practically nothing, no money in the ma-
jority of instances and ignorant, — now are worth
many times $700,000,000.

The $700,000,000 may also be considered from
another point of view : The "Negro Year Book,"
1913 credits the Negro with $700,000,000 worth
of property and speaks glowingly about the in-
crease of the previous ten years. The statement is
made that farm land and buildings owned by the
Negro increased from $69,639,426 in 1900 to
$273,506,665 in 1910, and that during the same
period the total value of Negro farm property,
including live stock, and implements and ma-
chinery increased from $177,408,688 to $492,-

Now, the Census shows that in 1900 Negroes

"The Chicago Tribune, Dec. 30, 1916, gives a list of gifts to
charity during 1916 as near $1,000,000,000.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 129

owned 13,770,801 acres of land entire and 2,205,-
297 acres in part. If their share of the land owned
in part were half, then, the Negroes had in pos-
session 14,873,449 acres. In 1910, they owned
15,961,506 acres entire and 3,1 14,957 acres in
part. Allowing them the same share of that held
in part as for 1900, gives them in 1910, 17,518,-
984 acres. However, only about two-fifths of
the land owned by Negroes is arable, the larger
part being woodland, swamp, rough and stony
land, much of which is almost valueless.

According to the "Negro Year Book," Negro
farm land and buildings increased in value from
$7.98 an acre in 1900 to $17.40 an acre in 1910.*
If this is true; the value of the Negro lands and
buildings in 1900 was $118,690,124 instead of
$69,639,426; and in 1910, $304,830,032 instead
of $273,506,665.

6 According to the census, "The average value of farm prop-
erty per acre was $27.01 for farms operated by Negroes in 1910
as compared with $13.08 for 1900, and $47.72 for farms operated
by whites in 1910." There was no indication whether all land
or merely arable land is meant. About three-fourths of the
farms operated by Negroes are rented. Observation convinces
me that farms owned by Negroes are not more than half so
valuable an acre on the average as the land rented by them, for
from necessity they buy the least valuable land. This being
true, Negro lands in 1900 could not have been worth more than
$6.00 an acre and about $13.00 in 1910. However, in making
any calculations as to the value of Negro lands and property, I
will take the Negro Year Book estimate and apply it to all
Negro land.

i3o THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

Again, Negroes operated in 1910, 893,370
farms while but 241,221 of these were owned or
partly owned by them. An idea of the value of the
farm stock on these farms, and the Negroes' lack
of thrift as well, may be had from a statement
made before the Negro Conference at Tuskegee
Institute in 1915 :

"An investigation has shown that there are
20,000 farms of Negroes on which there are no
cattle of any kind; 27,000 on which there are
no hogs; 200,000 on which no poultry is raised;
140,000 on which no corn is grown; on 750,000
farms of Negroes no oats are grown; on 550,000
farms no sweet potatoes are grown, and on 200,-
ooo farms of Negroes there are no gardens of
any sort." 7

According to the Census, however, on farms
operated by Negroes, farm implements and ma-
chinery increased from $18,859,757 in 1900 to
$34,178,052 by 1910, while live stock increased
in value from $84,936,215 to $184,896,771.
Adding to these amounts for 1910 the above sum
of $304,830,032 for Negro lands and buildings
a total of $523,904,855 is obtained for 1910 in-
stead of $492,898,216, which is the Negro Year

7 Scott and Stowe, "Booker T. Washington," p. 171.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 131

Book estimate.8 So here credit may be given the
Negro for the larger amount.

Again, according to the Census of 1910, Ne-
groes owned around 220,000 homes other than
farm homes. No estimate as to their value is
given. Although $400 each is undoubtedly a high
valuation they may be roughly estimated at that.
This amounts to $88,000,000. Booker T. Wash-
ington claimed for Negroes just before his death,
43,000 business interests.9 The observation of the
writer is that Negro business interests average
much less than $1000 each. Indeed, great num-
bers not more than $100 or $200 each. However,
if they average $1000 each they amount to $43,-
000,000.

By adding the three items: $523,904,855, the

'The estimate of $7.98 an acre in 1900, and $17.40 an acre in
1910, according to the "Negro Year Book" mentioned above, is
undoubtedly too high by at least one-third, but I use it so as to
give them the advantage rather than otherwise. I know a body
of 1,300 acres of land in my own county, Dorchester, Md., con-
sisting of some cleared land, woodland and brushland, which a
real estate man told me could be bought at five dollars an acre.
This is such land as the Negro usually buys. Only a short dis-
tance from the body of land mentioned in this note land is val-
ued at from twenty-five to one hundred dollars an acre.

'Among the Negro business interests are 64 banks which are
often mentioned in Negro speeches. It seems, however, that two
of them have failed. The total capital of these banks is said to
be $1,500,000. In striking contrast are the 27,000 white banks
with $2,162,900,000 capital. Petersburg, Negro settlement in
Md., mentioned above, has two Negro stores with hardly $100
worth of goods, each.

132 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

value of Negro farm property; $88,000,000, Ne-
gro-owned homes other than farm homes; and
$43,000,000, the value of the Negro business in-
terests; a grand total of $654,904,855 is obtain-
ed. Thus it would appear that in 1913 Negroes
might have had around $700,000,000 worth of
property in their possession.

Naturally the next question that comes to mind
is this: How much does the Negro owe?

Scarcely without exception the white man is his
creditor, consequently what the Negro owes is to
be subtracted from the amount of his possessions.

According to the Census of 1910, something like
65,000 Negro farms and 50,000 Negro-owned
homes have mortgages or similar encumbrances
against them. It is unlikely that this is true to
any large extent except as regards the more valua-
ble Negro properties, If the average farm
mortgage is $500 and the average home mort-
gage $300 both together will amount to $47,500,-
ooo. It is reasonable to suppose also that the
43,000 business interests owe at least $15,000,000.

Again, while more than 150,000 Negro farms
and about as many more Negro homes were re-
ported by the census as free of encumbrance, never-
theless, it is not unlikely that they owe a large
amount of money in notes, bills, etc. Nor need it
be forgotten that often Negro tenants owe their

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 133

landlords fully as much as the entire value of such
tenant's personal property.10 Many Negroes in
one way or another owe about as much as they
are worth. This is undoubtedly true of some
white men, also, but the point is, what Negroes
owe they owe to white men. A well-to-do farmer
told the writer a few years ago that he held vari-
ous kinds of small claims to the amount of more
than $4000 against the Negroes of his community.
So, $50,000,000 should not be an excessive esti-
mate for such Negro liabilities.

By adding these various items; $47,500,000
in mortgages and liens against Negro farms and
homes; $15,000,000 against Negro business in-
terests; and $50,000,000 against Negro farm own-
ers, home owners, tenants, etc., gives a grand total
of $112,500,000. Subtracting this from $654,-
904,855, which was found to be the value of Ne-
gro property, leaves $542,404,855 as the value
of Negro property when debts are paid.

Again, in regard to the statement above that
Negro farm property increased in value from
$222,485,096 in 1900 to $523,904,855 in 1910
one may need to be reminded that live stock and
land about doubled in money value during this

10 I make no mention of the little personal property often not
taxed many poorer Negroes possess, for the reason that usually
such Negroes owe retail store keepers even more than their
little property would sell for.

134 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

time and that by 1913 they had more than doubled.
This was due mainly to the wonderful increase in
the output of gold mines thus making money
cheaper. With this depreciation in the value of
money the Negro, of course, had nothing to do.

Except for this, it is unlikely that the $222,-
485,096 the valuation of Negro farm property
in 1900 would have increased to more than $265,-
000,000 in 1910 instead of $523,904,855. For
during the time the Negro added but 2,645,535
acres which may be valued at $21,000,000. The
remaining $23,000,000 being sufficient to allow
for the improvement of the land, if any, and any
actual increase of cattle and farm machinery. Now,
subtracting $265,000,000 from $523,904,855
leaves $258,904,855 which was due to rise in price
rather than to effort on the part of the Negro.
Again, subtracting the $258,904,855 from $542,-
404,855, the value of all Negro property after
their debts were paid, leaves $283,500,000 which,
except for the circumstances over which the Ne-
gro had no influence, would have been the actual
wealth of the Negro about 1913, instead of $700,-
000,000 as claimed.

Of this amount, no doubt, quite a large part
was given to individual Negroes by whites for one
reason or another. I have already adverted to
the fact that during slavery times Negroes often

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 135

received both money and property from kind-
hearted masters, along with their freedom. How
much has been given them since emancipation
would be hard to determine. Only a short while
ago, indeed, the New York Tribune mentioned
a white woman who had left her Negro maid $12,-
ooo in cash, and other valuables in addition.11

Moreover, it has been estimated, that of the
$28,496,946, the value of plant equipment and
endowment of Negro private schools, five-sixths
was contributed by whites and only one-sixth by
Negroes.12 During the years 1912 and 1913 white
people gave nearly $2,000,000 towards Negro
education.18 Nor does there appear to be any fall-
ing off in the white man's gifts to Negro schools.
In the early part of the year 1917, the Rockefeller
Foundation appropriated to American schools and
colleges $575,200, of which $197,000, several
times their share, was given to Negro schools.14
In addition, Federal and State institutions for the
higher education of the Negro have an income
about $1,000,000 and property valued at $6,000,-
ooo.1B Nor is this all, no doubt, Southern whites

u New York Tribune, Jan. 25, 1917.

tt "Negro Education," Government Printing Office, 1917, Vol.
I, p. 8.

11 U. S. Educational Report, 1914, Vol. I, pp. 612-13.

"Baltimore Sun, Jan. 30, 1917.

""Negro Education," Government Printing Office, 1917, Vol. I,
p. 12.

136

have contributed several times as much to Negro
education by taxation as has been given otherwise.
Again, the amount of money and lands that the
Negro secured during the reconstruction period
might be an interesting subject for investigation.
The Negro legislator had the same privilege as
the white one to sell his vote and influence. Nor
could there be little doubt that he failed to use
the opportunity. The following story is credited
to Senator Z. B. Vance of North Carolina : 18

A Negro member of the North Carolina legis-
lature was found chuckling to himself over a pile
of money which he was counting. "What amuses
you so?" he was asked. "Well, boss," he re-
plied, grinning from ear to ear, "I's been sold in
my life 'leven times, an' fo' de Lord, dis is de fust
time I eber got de money."

During the Reconstruction period taxes became
so oppressive that thousands and thousands of
farms and plantations were sold at auction for"
taxes. In some places land became almost value-
less. It is hardly to be doubted that many Ne-
groes who got easy money through politics at this
time failed to use some of it in the purchase of
land.

"James Ford Rhodes, "History of United States," Vol. VI, p.
305.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 137

Now, what is the reason for the poverty of the
Negro? Indeed, from the foregoing it must ap-
pear that poverty is a more appropriate word to
use in such connection than wealth. The answer
is not far to seek. It is the natural result of the
Negro character, disposition, and training. The
following letter is suggestive :

"... 'I have done my work practically the
whole summer with the exception of a few weeks
that I had a trifling no account Negro, and even
then I had to do the best portion of it in order to
get them to accomplish anything. When they
would wash and iron, those days I did everything
else and they helped a little with the ironing, for
if I didn't they would never get through. They
[Negroes] are absolutely worthless, and if I
didn't have small children I wouldn't let one light
within a mile of me. . . . " 1T

A Negro who worked in the strawberry section
of Delaware told the writer a few years ago that
although he usually worked in the daytime he
roved about every night. It happened that once,
when he had been carousing as usual on the night
before, that he was put to harrowing strawber-

17 Quotation from a letter shown to the writer, which was
written by a woman in Richmond.

138 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

ries. About three o'clock in the afternoon the
overseer came along and found that he was har-
rowing up the strawberries from one end of the
row to the other, — he was so sleepy. The over-
seer simply told him to put his horse in the stable
and go to bed, which he did. As he got some
sleep, when night came he was out again for a-
great part of the night; and so on.

As a laborer, the Negro is not so satisfactory
asj formerly. The old-time Negro, trained in
slavery to work, has about passed away and his
successor is far less efficient and faithful to duty.
Lately, large numbers of Negro laborers have
shown a tendency to leave the farms for work on
railroads, in sawmills, and in the cities, large num-
bers migrating to the cities of the North. They
like to work in crowds and this often results in
making more work for the police.

From the good wages Negro laborers have re-
ceived for several years, many of the more far-
sighted have saved enough to buy little homes. A
few of the more ambitious may continue to save,
but far the greater part are then perfectly satis-
fied and settle down to a life of ease and content-
ment. By raising a hog or two, a few chickens,
some garden vegetables, and, with a day's work
now and then, they pass their time in a way suited
to their indifferent nature.
i

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 139

A concrete example may be of interest. A pure
Negro, about thirty-five years of age, a few years
ago, purchased about half an acre of land on the
bank of a "branch" near a small village in Mary-
land. For a few dollars he bought an old dis-
carded house about one hundred and fifty yards
away, and with the aid of neighbors moved it on
his lot. It is doubtful if both the lot, and the house
(after being moved and repaired) cost him more
than one hundred dollars.

This Negro has been living in it for years and
seems perfectly contented. His family consists of
himself, wife and three daughters eleven to seven-
teen years of age. The surrounding country is
one of the best tomato growing sections in the
United States and during about six weeks of the to-
mato season tomato pickers are in great demand
and make good wages. During this time the Ne-
gro man and his family usually work hard; for
they pick by the basket and make in the neighbor-
hood of two hundred dollars. This is practically
their year's work. The remainder of the year
they do but little. They have a garden, pigs, and
chickens. It would be an easy matter for this
family to get ahead in the world ; but they prefer
the easy life of comparative idleness, — for this
was their incentive to secure a home.

This is also one of the main reasons, no doubt,

140 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

for the great increase in Negro tenant farmers,
especially that of share tenants. The latter class
increased about thirty-six per cent between 1900
and 1910. Many of these seldom work a full
day at a time. As they usually put off cultivating
a crop to the last moment, if a wet season hap-
pens to set in, it is soon greatly damaged by a
growth of grass. As a tenant farmer, the Ne-
gro realizes that he is more independent, his time
is his own, and that he can usually work when he
pleases. A great part of his time is given to vari-
ous Negro recreations, — such as visiting, riding
and driving, crap-shooting, preaching, attending
revivals, and camp-meetings.

So the cause of the Negro's failure to secure
a reasonable share of wealth is not lack of oppor-
tunity,— for (at least, in the South) he has every
opportunity that he could wish in order to do so, —
but rather to his racial traits or characteristics, —
some of which are : a happy-go-lucky disposition,
indolence, shiftlessness, laziness, indifference, lack
of mental stamina and ambition, and strong crim-
inal tendencies.

CHAPTER VII

THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO

MANY solutions of the Negro problem have
been proposed. Men so gifted with imagination
that they do not find it necessary to consider either
logic or facts, over and again, in a single speech
or magazine article, have solved it to their indi-
vidual satisfaction. Such proposed solutions are
usually no less preposterous than visionary. With
these I have nothing to do. As elsewhere in this
study, so also here, I consider only what seems
to have a firm basis of fact.

However, in passing, I may be pardoned, if I
have the temerity to suggest the following, which,
although seemingly fanciful, yet may have suffi-
cient ground in reason as to merit some considera-
tion: If about 100,000 square miles of territory
on the Gulf of Mexico, embracing, say, Louisiana
east of the Mississippi River, excepting New Or-
leans,— the southern part of Mississippi and Ala-
bama, the part of Florida south of Alabama, and
a small part of southwest Georgia, were set apart
as a State or States to which all the Negroes in

141

142 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

other parts of the country be encouraged or
obliged to migrate, it might result in great good to
both races.

Something like half the population of this sec-
tion are Negroes, while the whites that are here
are mostly in the towns and cities. The area sug-
gested is more than that of New York and Penn-
sylvania combined. There would be room for all
Negroes in the country for generations to come.
As the Negro states would be members of the
Union, with representatives and senators in Con-
gress, the Negroes would have an opportunity
under the Federal Government to develop a po-
litical and social world of their own removed from
the overshadowing presence of the white man. If
the Negro showed himself unable to develop the
power of local self-government under such an ar-
rangement, his case would be absolutely hopeless.
However, there are so many difficulties in the way
and so many objections that might be made that
no one need either hope or fear that any such
thing will ever be undertaken.

But somewhat more in keeping with common
sense and prevalent ideas is the proposal that Ne-
groes be encouraged to distribute themselves
equally over the country; thus relieving the South
of its burden of Negro population. If such an
equalization of the Negro population could be car-

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 143

ried out, the Negro then being everywhere few in
numbers to the whites, could the better be held
to the white man's standard of conduct. Not only
so, but the Negro would have an opportunity to
absorb the white man's civilization more quickly,
if ever. In addition, the race question would
cease to be sectional, and laws mutually advantage-
ous to both races could then be passed.

Before going further, even at the risk of digress-
ing,— for it is a matter of justice to the Negro, —
it should be said in favor of the Negro that even
though he is the most alien race among us, no
question as to his patriotism is ever raised. He
has fought in all our great wars and has shown
himself patriotic to the core.

A day or two after President Wilson had made
his German War address before Congress, the
writer happened by the Star bulletin board in
Washington, and noticed a German talking to a
big burly Negro against war with Germany. He
pointed to the bulletin board and told him not to
believe anything he saw there for it was all lies
made in London. The Negro seemed to listen in
a half-disgusted sort of way, but as he started off
he was understood to say:

"I wish I was with some colored soldiers in
Europe. We would show the Germans how to

144 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

The Negro has no kindred country to look
to, so he is undivided in his allegiance. This can-
not be said of all other races among us, — not of
the Japanese and Chinese who seek admission at
our Pacific shores. Like the Negro they cannot
be assimilated by our people. In numbers, how-
ever, they would constitute a much more danger-
ous element to our welfare and safety than the
Negro. Japan is almost abreast of our civiliza-
tion and the western nations are doing their best
to train China to be an antagonist worthy of their
steel, should she ever have cause to cross swords
with them. Large numbers of Chinese and Jap-
anese would not only add to our race problems but
would increase our chances for friction with their
home governments. In addition they might con-
stitute a reverse army of the enemy in our midst
in case of war. But no such danger need be feared
from the presence of the Negro.

I have just adverted to the fact that the yellow
race and the black are not easily assimilated with
the white race. It may be well that it is so. To
the normal white man amalgamation with these
races is almost unthinkable. Nevertheless, there
are a few misguided individuals who surely have
either a mental or a moral twist who persist in
joining together that which nature has put asunder.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 145

A few years ago, a minister sent the following
telegram to the Governor of California : l

"I have just married a Japanese to an Ameri-
can and have done more for God and Uncle Sam
than the alien land bill will do in 1000 years."

It is not the ungodly that cause the suffering in
the world so much as the bigoted if well-intention-
ed fools. Self-elected good people can usually be
counted on to cause a lot of mischief. If those
who set themselves up as leaders and ethical teach-
ers would but first make sure that they were pos-
sessed of at least a fair amount of common sense !

In a recent Methodist Conference at Roanoke,
Virginia, the statement was made that the rec-
ords of some churches in Massachusetts show that
in the previous year "17 per cent of the marriages
were those in which Negro men married white
women or white men married Negro women." 2
This is the more remarkable when account is taken
of the very small Negro population of that State.

It is even sometimes asserted that the Negro
would bring to the white race some qualities which
would tend toward the development of a more per-
fect man. But such an idea has no basis in fact.
The following quotation is to the point :

1 Baltimore American, May 23, 1913.
* Baltimore Sun, March 30, 1917.

146 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

"We have ample experience to go upon in
South America, in the West Indies, in the South-
ern States themselves. The mulatto exists and has
existed for generations, not in hundreds or thou-
sands, but in millions; in what respect has he
proved himself the superior of the pure Spaniard,
or Portuguese, or Anglo-Saxon? Does South
American history bear testimony to his political
competence? Have his achievements in science, in
literature, in music, been superior to the un-Afri-
canized peoples? Or waiving the question of su-
periority, has he ever in these domains, produced
meritorious work in any fair proportion to his
numbers? I do not say that it is impossible to
make out a sort of case for him, by the ransacking
of records and the employment of a very indefinite
standard of values. But I do most emphatically
say that no conspicuous or undeniable advantage
has resulted from the blending of bloods, such as
can or ought to counteract the instinctive repug-
nance of the South." 3

It is said that an investigation of 2200 Negro
authors showed that nearly all of them come from
the mixed stock.4 How many of these would take

* William Archer, in McClure's, July, 1909.

* C. A. Ell wood, "Sociology and Modern Social Problems," p.
241.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 147

first, second, or even third rank in the literary
world? It is needless to answer. Indeed, Negroes
and mulattoes have been toilers in the United
States for generations but who ever heard of an
important labor saving instrument invented by
them? The same abilities or characteristics which
would make a white man only locally important
would make a Negro or a mulatto famous. There
were thousands upon thousands of white men in-
tellectually and otherwise superior to Booker T.
Washington who gained but little recognition, but
because he was a negro, or rather mulatto, Wash-,
ington's abilities stood out in striking relief. Mu-
lattoes ought to furnish the leaders of the Negro
race for the best white blood runs in the veins of
some of them. Although mulattoes may furnish
the Negro leaders, there can be no doubt that they
also furnish far beyond their share of the vicious
and the criminal elements of the race as well.

It may be pertinent in this connection, however,
to observe that in the South the two races have
been gradually drawing apart, amalgamation or
miscegenation is becoming more and more repug-
nant, the conditions which favored it do not ob-
tain to anything like the extent as formerly, as a
consequence the mixing between the whites and
the blacks is rapidly lessening. Although the cen-
sus shows an increase in the number of mulattoes

148 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

from decade to decade, the increase is mainly due
to the mixing of mulattoes with pure Negroes.

Some students of the subject, who seemingly are
more familiar with the conditions in the North and
the border States than with those of the farther
South, sometimes estimate from one-third to one-
half of the Negroes in the United States to be mu-
lattoes. This, I am confident, is a mistake. I
was reared in a border State, have spent some time
in the North as well as in several Southern States,
and have been in many of the leading cities of the
South. My observation leads me to believe that
the Census, in this respect, is more nearly correct
than any other source of information.

The Agents of the Census, in 1910, were in-
structed to "report as 'black' all persons who were
evidently full blood Negroes and as 'mulattoes'
all other persons having some proportion or per-
ceptible trace of Negro blood." Accordingly in
a population of 9,928,000 Negroes in the United
States there were found to be 2,050,000 mulat-
toes, 20.9 per cent, or a little more than one-
fifth.

By geographic divisions the percentage of mu-
lattoes among the Negroes was as follows : New
England, 33.4 per cent; Middle Atlantic States,
19.6; East North Central, 33.2 ; West North Cen-
tral, 28.7; South Atlantic, 20.8; East South Cen-

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 149

tral, 19.1; West South Central, 20.1; Mountain,
28.6; and Pacific States, 34.7.

Of the Northern States, Michigan took first
place, with 47 per cent of mulattoes among her
Negroes. Maine was next, with 45.9; and Wis-
consin third, with 39.4. Those with the smallest
percentage were Wyoming, 13.1 per cent; New
Jersey, 15.8; and Pennsylvania, 19.2. The South-
ern States having the largest percentage were, Vir-
ginia, 33.2 per cent; West Virginia, 32.5; and
Missouri, 28.4 per, cent. A large number of
States in the South had a small percentage of mu-
lattoes among their Negroes: Maryland, 18.6
per cent; Georgia, 17.3; Mississippi, 16.9; Ala-
bama, 16.7; South Carolina, 16.1; Florida, 16.0;
Delaware, 11.9; and the Eastern Shore of Mary-
land which borders Delaware on two sides, had
only 1 1. 1 per cent, or one mulatto to every nine
Negroes; thus the Eastern Shore has the distinc-
tion of having fewer mulattoes in proportion to
its Negro population than any other section. It
is therefore evident that in the North the propor-
tion of mulattoes among the Negroes is from about
one-fifth to almost one-half; while in the South the
proportion ranges from above one-eighth to about
one-third. In the States where the bulk of the
Negro population is found it is only about one-
sixth. With slight exceptions, it seems to be true

150 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

that the fewer to the white population the more
mulattoes there are in proportion to the number of
the Negroes.

Indeed, may it not be true that the much larger
proportional number of mulattoes among the Ne-
groes of the North in no small measure accounts
for the greater proportional amount of crime
among the Negroes of the North? So it would
appear that the amalgamation or miscegenation of
the whites and the Negroes is not a leveling up
but rather a leveling down process; at best nothing
otherwise than building up the Negro by lowering
the white. So no greater nor more fearful calam-
ity could befall the white race in America than
that the Negro should lose his identity through
being absorbed by this great division of the Anglo-
Saxon race.

Again, many optimistic white men have thought
that the Negro could be raised to the white man's
level by means of the training and culture that
comes through the study of books. To these edu-
cation for the Negro has been a watchword. To a
large extent Southern whites have been in sym-
pathy with the education of the Negro. Indeed,
many years ago, contrary to what one not familiar
with the South might suppose, a prominent man
in North Carolina in seeking a congressional
nomination on a platform hostile to Negro educa-

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 151

tion failed even to carry his home county. And
efforts to restrict the amount appropriated to Ne-
gro schools to the part of the school taxes paid
by Negroes have failed.

Since 1870 the South has spent on Negro edu-
cation around $230,000,000 and is now appro-
priating for that purpose near $10,000,000, an-
nually. It is doubtful if the Negro contributes in r^
taxes even half the amount spent on his public
schools. In 1912, according to the Educational
Report of that State, North Carolina spent $436,-
480.08 for Negro teachers and Negro school
buildings, of which the Negro contributed in taxes
for schools $190,378.81, or a little more than
two-fifths. Texas spends not far from $2,000,000
a year on Negro schools, and Georgia about $850,-
ooo. The District of Columbia, indeed, spends
more per capita on Negro pupils than on whites.
However, this is a notable exception.

There are also more than six hundred private
and denominational schools of secondary and col-
lege grade in the United States for the higher edu-
cation of the Negro. The property of these is
valued at about $28,500,000^ From 1865 to
1917 about $65,000,000 has been contributed to
Negro education in the South through various re-
ligious and philanthropic organizations.

8 Negro Education (Government Report), Vol. I, p. 8.

152

But notwithstanding the fact that the illiteracy
of the Negro race had been reduced by 1910 to
about thirty-three per cent, there is a widespread
feeling of disappointment in Negro education.
Not that it has made the Negro more criminal
as has sometimes been said, however, this is not
yet well determined, but rather that it has failed
to make him a greater producer, or to aid him
to adjust himself to economic conditions. Instead
of firing him with the desire to do more and bet-
ter work, too often he quits it altogether.

As a teacher or a preacher the Negro has a
wide field for his race needs him and the State
and the Church pay him. But as a doctor, law-
yer, or other professional, poverty and pauperism
(the condition of the greater part of the Negro
race) militate against them. In addition, the Ne-
gro has not yet sufficient confidence in the profes-
sional skill of those of his own race as to cause
him to employ them exclusively.

There is a growing conviction in the South that
the first aim of Negro education should be to fit
the Negro for the opportunities of his social and
industrial environment. Also that it should en-
deavor to strengthen his will power, in order that
he may overcome his constitutional inertia; and
that it should give him a knowledge of sanitary
living, thus preventing disease.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 153

In the South Carolina Public School Report for
1915, the State Superintendent of Schools has this
to say:

"The Negro is here and is here to stay. He
cannot remain ignorant without injury to himself,
his white neighbors and to the Commonwealth.
His training should fit him for the work that is
open to him. . . . While industrial education is
needed for both races it is especially desirable for
the Negro.

"The money now expended for Negro educa-
tion is largely wasted. Can we afford longer to
allow this large element in our population to fol-
low their present practices and remain in their
present condition?"

Such schools as Hampton Institute and Tuske-
gee have fairly well demonstrated that industrial
education is at least a good thing for the Negro.
In these and other such schools thousands have
been given an inspiration for a higher plane of
living. Indeed, it is claimed that very seldom is
any graduate of these two schools convicted of
crime :8 The influence of Tuskegee on the Negro
in a material way may be appreciated by the state-
ment that in 1881 when the school was opened in

'"Education and Crime," South Atlantic Monthly, January,
1917.

154 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

Macon County, Alabama, not more than fifty or
sixty Negroes in the county owned land, but in
1910, 503 Negroes in the county owned 61,689
acres, "probably the largest amount of land owned
by the Negroes of any county in the United
States." 7

If a few Negro industrial schools make such a
good showing, then why not multiply the num-
ber? Indeed, it is yet too early for either the Ne-
gro or his friends to indulge in too much optimism
in regard to the matter. For while it may be true
in general that whatever is done in behalf of a
lower element in a society benefits the whole so-
ciety, at the same time, it needs to be borne in
mind that to the extent that it is done to the cost
or by the neglect of a more homogeneous and
wholesome element in the society or if it in any
way militates against such element it is a question-
able proceeding.

What if the industrial education of the Negro
should be found to conflict with the interests of
the white laborer or skilled worker? Does any
one suppose that it is the purpose of the South so
to educate the Negro (or even allow him to be so
educated) as to enable him to take the bread from
the white man's mouth? And does any one sup-
pose that the laboring white man of the arrogant

T Scott and Stowe, "Life of Booker T. Washington," p. 176.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 155

and aggressive Anglo-Saxon race will stand tamely
by with folded arms while there is danger of its
being done?

This is the central point of the whole situation.
But in the South the contest between these two con-
flicting interests is not yet, as the demand for
labor skilled or unskilled is too great. The Negro
has had and can have all the work he wants and
more for the asking; indeed, often his labor is
anxiously solicited. How long this will continue
no one knows, positively. However, when the
population of the country reaches 150,000,000 or
200,000,000 then labor will likely be as plentiful
here as it is now in Europe. Then, the labor of
the Negro will hardly be solicited, rather other-
wise. The white man's sympathetic attitude to-
ward the Negroes' many shortcomings is fast
passing. When the Negro is required to measure
up to the white man's standard and is found want-
ing, what remains for him?

Furthermore, the Negro might as well get fully
in mind that, although the white man sometimes
may win without merit (yet often fails to win
even though deserving to do so), for the Negro
himself, even though merit may not win, without
it he will have absolutely no show. He must be
not only as well adapted to an occupation, or quali-
fied for it, as a white man but better.

156 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

Until lately those especially interested in the
welfare of the Negro might have entertained the
hope that he would hold his place in his custom-
ary occupations or even make them in great part
his very own. This would have been a kind of
segregation to occupation analogous to his segre-
gation as regards residence and at least as advan-
tageous to him. But in hardly more than one oc-
cupation is such the case. As a porter he seems to
have the field practically to himself, and as hod-
carrier he is in demand. But as a barber he has
fast been losing ground. The Negro as a waiter
takes more pride in his occupation and is more po-
lite and obliging than the white man of the waiter
class but he is even being displaced in this work.
Even as a farm laborer, for which service he has
been trained for generations, he is losing his grip.
"Too slow, unreliable, inefficient" are some of the
counts against him.

The idea that prevails outside the South that
Negroes do practically all the work on Southern
farms is far from the truth. More than half of
the cotton crop is raised by white labor, — in
Texas, three-fourths or more. Even in sugar and
rice fields white labor is getting common.8 Often,
indeed, a farmer will not employ a Negro if he
can get a white man.

"Year Book, Dept. of Agriculture, 1910, p. 193.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 157

Indeed, the Negro farm laborer and the Negro
farmer are the greatest stumbling-blocks in the
way of the agricultural development of the South.
Were it possible to remove from the South at
least three-fourths of these and replace them with
whites whether native or foreign there can be no
doubt that the production of Southern farms
would be wonderfully increased. It is an injury
to the South and to society as a whole that the
Negro has under his control even as much land
as at present. When his "slipshod" farming gives
place to more scientific and businesslike methods
there will be more farm products for distribu-
tion.

The inefficiency of the Negro as a farmer is
strikingly shown by a study of the conditions in
several Mississippi counties:

"Lowdnes County with three Negroes to one
white man, having 21,972 blacks and 7121 whites,
requires 3.15 acres to make a bale of cotton, while
James County, with three whites to one negro, hav-
ing 13,156 whites and 4,670 blacks, requires 1.98
acres to make a bale. The farm lands of Jones
county are valued in the census reports at $2.85
per acre and the farm lands of Lowdnes County
at $9.83 an acre. Yet the poor lands of Jones
County under intelligent cultivation produced near-

ly twice as much per acre as the rich lands of
Lowdnes County when cultivated mostly by Ne-
groes ... in every comparison made between a
white county and a black one the black was the
most fertile, yet the white was nearly twice as pro-
ductive." 9

Such a poor showing for the Negro almost per-
suades one that he deserves to be supplanted by
whites in farm work and in farming, even if he
should not be. At present the South holds out un-
equaled attractions in the way of climate, rich soil,
and cheap lands, to those of other sections of the
country who may be seeking farm homes. And
there can be little doubt that with the passing of
the free public lands the tide of immigration in
the near future will set in that direction, in spite
of the presence of the Negro. Then what will
become of the Negro when he shall have to com-
pete with the thrifty hard-working Poles, Bohe-
mians, and native Americans from the North and
the West? Will he be simply pushed aside and
left to gravitate to a still lower level? Nothing
will save him unless he soon wonderfully changes
in habits and disposition. So the Negro may as
well look forward to the time when he will be sup-

*Quoted by A. H. Stone in "American Race Problem," pp. 177-
8, from J. C. Hardy, "The South's Supremacy in Cotton Grow-
ing," p. 9.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 159

planted in these occupations to which he thinks
himself so well adapted and in which he thinks
himself so well fortified, — those of farm laborer
and farmer.

Finally, may not the unquestioned physical de-
terioration of the Negro since his emancipation as
shown by his susceptibility to disease together with
his high death rate portend the ultimate practical
extinction of the race in the United States? Dur-
ing slavery times the Negro was fairly well fed
and usually worked according to set regulations.
Evidently such food and training had no little to
do with developing a sound body, and disciplined
his mind to some extent as well.10

According to De Bow, the mortality of the free
Negroes before the War was a hundred per cent
greater than that of the slaves. It even appears
that the death of the Negroes in the South at that
time was less than that of the whites. In Charles-
ton, S. C., the average death-rate from 1822 to
1 86 1 was 25.98 a thousand for whites and 24.05

10 "There were imported in the British West Indies 4,000,000
Negro slaves and when they were manumitted there were 800,-
ooo. Into the Southern States 400,000 were imported and there
were before the war 4,000,000 ; this decrease in the former
and increase in the latter are strong facts. The climate influ-
ence was on the side of the West Indies. There must have
been a very different treatment." — Charleston (S. C.) Mercury,
Nov. 23, 1863. Quoted by it from a London paper, written by
an Englishwoman who had spent a short time in the South.

160 THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING

for Negroes. About the same was true of some
other cities. From 1865 to 1894, however, the
average death-rate at Charleston was 26.77 a
thousand for whites and 43.29 for Negroes.11 No
doubt the slight increase of the death rate among
the whites was due to the rapid increase among
the Negroes as the whites necessarily came more
or less in contact with the Negroes.

Indeed, very significant in this connection, is
the statement made in the "Negro Year Book"
(1914-15) that an average of 450,000 Negroes in
the South are seriously ill all the time, and that
600,000 of the present population will die of tuber-
culosis.

The Census shows that both pneumonia and
tuberculosis are diseases very fatal to Negroes.
And strange as it may now seem, in slavery times
Negroes were thought to be practically immune
from tuberculosis. Indeed, it is said that, about
1882-3, there was exhibited at a clinic in Charles-
ton, S. C., what was supposed to have been the
second case of tuberculosis ever found among
Negroes.12 This is very remarkable, if true.

In each city of the following list of twelve is
given the number of times more deaths that oc-

11 R. W. Woolley, Pearson's Magazine, Feb., 1910, p. 210, quot-
ing Drs. Scale, Harris and W. C. Woodward.

"Report of Board of Prison Inspectors of Alabama, Sept.,
1910-1914, p. 45.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 161

curred from tuberculosis among Negroes in 1910,
according to the Census, than among whites:
Providence, 1.82; Richmond, 2.05; Boston, 2.46;
Atlanta, 2.48; New York, 2.64; New Orleans,
2.70; Memphis, 2.80; Philadelphia 3.00; Balti-
more, 3.14; Washington, 3.34; Charleston, S. C.,
3.55. It may be noticed that more than three and
one-half times as many Negroes as whites died of
tuberculosis in Charleston. The comparative sta-
tistics for pneumonia differ not very much from
those of tuberculosis.

However, the ratio of death-rate from com-
bined causes is much lower than this. The aver-
age death rate a thousand in eight Northern States
in 1910 was 21.9 for Negroes and 15.1 for whites ;
while the average for two Southern States was
23.7 for Negroes and 15.2 for whites. In ten
Northern cities it was 23.64 for Negroes and
15.99 f°r whites; for the same number of cities
in the South it was 30.60 for Negroes and 17.22
for whites.13 Again, in thirty-three Northern
cities the death rate among Negroes was 25.1 a

"Northern States: Me., Mass., Mich., N. J., N. Y., O., Pa.,
and R. I.; Southern: Md. and N. C. These were the only
Southern States mentioned in this connection in the census.
Northern cities: New Haven, Boston, Detroit, Atlantic City,
Trenton, Cleveland, Springfield, Philadelphia, Chicago, and
Kansas City; Southern: Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington,
N. C., Mobile, Atlanta, Savannah, New Orleans, Memphis,
Charleston, S. C., and Richmond.

thousand and 15.7 among whites, while in twenty-
four Southern cities the death-rate was 29.6 for
Negroes and 16.9 for whites. For the fifty-seven
cities together, 27.8 for Negroes and 15.9 for
whites.14 Thus, it is seen that the death rate
among Negroes is not far from twice as great as
among whites, but contrary to the general impres-
sion it is less in the North than in the South.

Moreover, statistics show that the Negro is not
increasing in this country as fast in proportion as
is the white man. Indeed, he seems to be falling
behind in his own percentage of increase. Be-
tween 1890 and 1900 his increase was i,345»3i&
but from 1900 to 1910 it was only 993,769.
Again, the percentage of Negroes in the popula-
tion of the country decreased from 19.03 per cent
in 1810 to 10.69 per cent in 1910, and from 14.13
per cent in 1860 to 10.69 Per cent *n I9I°- ^n
other words, while the whites increased nearly
three and one-half (3.4) times between 1860 and
1910, the Negro increased only two and two-
tenths (2.2) times.

That this difference between the increase of
the two races was not due to the immigration of
whites is shown by the fact that from 1800 to 1840
when there was scarcely any immigration of whites
the population of the country increased more than

" Department of Commerce Bulletin 129, p. 44.

AND THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH 163

three and a fifth (3.21) times, while from 1870 to
1910, an equal number of years, when immigra-
tion was almost at its height, the increase was only
a little more than two and a third (2.38) times.
Again, during the fifty years, 1790 to 1840, it
increased four and a third (4.34) times; also, be-
tween 1810 and 1860 it increased in the same ratio
(4.34) ; while for the fifty years from 1860 to
1910 it increased only something more than two
and three-fourths (2.86) times.

Indeed, it is said that "the Southern States,
which have received practically no immigrants
since the Civil War, have increased their popula-
tion as rapidly as the Northern States; that is, the
increase of population among the Southern whites
has been equal to the Northern increase assisted
by immigration." 15

While these facts may not be sufficient evidence
that the Negro will finally become extinct in this
country, nevertheless, it is impossible for one to
escape the conclusion that as the years go by the
members of his race will become fewer and fewer
in proportion to the whole population. As this
comes about the Negro will gradually cease to be
such a problem, as at present.

11 C. A. Ellwood: "Sociology and Modern Social Problems,"
p. 212.

Collins, Winfield Hazlitt
185 The truth about lynching

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Full text of "The truth about lynching and the Negro in the South, in which the author pleads that the South be made safe for the white race"

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